W. S. Merwin (1927- ) : "By the Avenue"

Through the trees and across the river

with its surface the color of steel

on a rainy morning late in spring

the splintered skyline of the city

glitters in a silence we all know

but cannot touch or reach for with words

and I am the only one who can

remember now over there among

the young leaves brighter than the daylight

another light through the tall windows 

a sunbeam sloping like a staircase 

and from beyond it my father's voice

telling about a mote in an eye

that was like a mote in a sunbeam




From "The Shadow Of Sirius"
Copper Canyon Press 2009
The Shadow of Sirius