“Sight” by W.S. Merwin

Published in: 

The Rain in the Trees, 1987
 

(Knopf)

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

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