Wodwo
What am I? Nosing here, turning leaves over Following a faint stain on the air to the river's edge I enter water. Who am I to split The glassy grain of water looking upward I see the bed Of the river above me upside down very clear What am I doing here in mid-air? Why do I find this frog so interesting as I inspect its most secret interior and make it my own? Do these weeds know me and name me to each other have they seen me before do I fit in their world? I seem separate from the ground and not rooted but dropped out of nothing casually I've no threads fastening me to anything I can go anywhere I seem to have been given the freedom of this place what am I then? And picking bits of bark off this rotten stump gives me no pleasure and it's no use so why do I do it me and doing that have coincided very queerly But what shall I be called am I the first have I an owner what shape am I what shape am I am I huge if I go to the end on this way past these trees and past these trees till I get tired that's touching one wall of me for the moment if I sit still how everything stops to watch me I suppose I am the exact centre but there's all this what is it roots roots roots roots and here's the water again very queer but I'll go on looking
Wodwo - meaning Summary
Consciousness Without a Name
Wodwo presents a newly conscious creature exploring a natural world without a settled identity. Its questions move from sensory curiosity to larger doubts about belonging, freedom, ownership, and bodily shape. The creature feels both central to its surroundings and detached from them, able to wander yet lacking roots or connections. The poem makes selfhood seem unfinished: identity emerges through continual attention, movement, and questioning rather than certainty.
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