“Prophecy” by W.S. Merwin

Published in: 

The Pupil, 2001
 

(Knopf)

At the end of the year the stars go out
the air stops breathing and the Sibyl sings
first she sings of the darkness she can see
she sings on until she comes to the age
without time and the dark she cannot see

no one hears then as she goes on singing
of all the white days that were brought to us one by one
that turned to colors around us

a light coming from far out in the eye
where it begins before she can see it

The Merwin Conservancy's logo; image displays a palm frond oriented vertically