SIGHT
Once
a single cell
found that it was full of light
and for the first time there was seeing
when
I was a bird
I could see where the stars had turned
and I set out on my journey
high
in the head of a mountain goat
I could see across a valley
under the shining trees something moving
deep
in the green sea
I saw two sides of the water
and swam between them
I
look at you
in the first light of the morning
for as long as I can
— W.S. Merwin, from his book The Rain in the Trees (Knopf, 1988). Copyright © 1988 by W.S. Merwin. Used by permission of the publishers.
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