It was a late book given up for lost <br />again and again with its sentences <br /> <br />bare at last and phrases that seemed transparent <br />revealing what had been there the whole way <br /> <br />the poems of daylight after the day <br />lying open at last on the table <br /> <br />without explanation or emphasis <br />like sounds left when the syllables have gone <br /> <br />clarifying the whole grammar of waiting <br />not removing one question from the air <br /> <br />or closing the story although single lights <br />were beginning by then above and below <br /> <br />while the long twilight deepened its silence <br />from sapphire through opal to Athena’s iris <br /> <br />until shadow covered the gray pages <br />the comet words the book of presences <br /> <br />after which there was little left to say <br />but then it was night and everything was known <br /> <br />From 'The Shadow Of Sirius' <br />Publisher: Copper Canyon Press (September 1, 2008)<br /><br />William Stanley Merwin<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-codex/
