The Different Stars by W.S. Merwin
I could never have come to the present without you
remember that
from whatever stage we may again
watch it appear
with its lines clear
pain
having gone from there
so that we may well wonder
looking back on us here what tormented us
what great difficulty invisible
in a time that by then looks simple
and is irrevocable
pain having come from there
my love
I tend to think of division as the only evil
when perhaps it is merely my own
that unties
one day the veins one the arteries
that prize less
as it receives than as it loses
that breaks the compasses
cannot be led or followed
cannot choose what to carry
into grief
even
unbinds will unbind
unbinds our hands
pages of the same story
what is it
they say can turn even this into wisdom
and what is wisdom if it is not
now
in the loss that has not left this place
oh if we knew
if we knew what we needed if we even knew
the stars would look to us to guide them
This poem was selected by Russ J. (Periodicals)
