Robinson has an M.A. in English. She is a writer and editor and a former teacher of English literature and creative writing. In the following essay, she examines how “I, I, I” illustrates an idea of the self that runs through the ancient Indian and other spiritual traditions.

When the author Roger Housden included a poem by Hayden Carruth in his book Ten Poems to Last a Lifetime, he wrote by way of introduction, “Carruth, a social realist and a political radical, is wary of mysticism, yet his work carries some of the most penetrating insight—spiritual insight—to be found anywhere.” Indeed, Carruth’s poem “I, I, I” addresses the fundamental paradox of the Upanishads, one of the ancient Indian texts known as the Veda: “By what . . . should one know the knower?” Lest this...