Heel & Toe to the End
Heel & Toe to the End
Gagarin says, in ecstasy,
he could have
gone on forever
he floated
ate and sang
and when he emerged from that
one hundred eight minutes off
the surface of
the earth he was smiling
Then he returned
to take his place
among the rest of us
from all that division and
subtraction a measure
toe and heel
heel and toe he felt
as if he had
been dancing
—William Carlos Williams, 1962
By William Carlos Williams, from Collected Poems 1938-1962, Volume II, copyright © 1962 by William Carlos Williams. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
Home page image: "Wegbereiter Ikarus," print, woodblock on paper, by Wilhelm Geissler, 1966. (Courtesy NASM)