“The Biology of Art” by W.S. Merwin

Published in: 

The Rain in the Trees, 1987
 

(Knopf)

Once at night
it begins
and you are the rest

whoever you are you see the first light
you see it arriving
like a star with you watching it

in the morning you can look at any tree
and see it has no age
and say so

after a long time you look down
into a valley without a name
after a long time as water you look up

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