Open Entirely

OUTSIDE

Ah, the unmoving air,

bell in the cold,

eyes in the hoar-frost!

There, within doors, before,

the house was body

and the body was soul.

Ah, the white earth,

the quiet, the mist

that from the hearth rises!

Now, on the path moving,

the soul is a body,

the house is the soul.

OPEN ENTIRELY

Leave the doors open,

this night, so that he,

if he wish, this night, may come,

who is dead.

Open entirely,

to see if we may resemble

his body; to see if we are

something of his soul, being

given up to space;

JIMENEZ / MERWIN

to see if the great infinity

may throw us a little, invading us,

of ourselves; if we may die

a little here; and there, in him,

if we may live a little.

Open

all the house, as though

he might be in body

present in the blue night,

among us as blood,

with the stars for flowers.