To My Soul

JIMENEZ / MERWIN

TO MY SOUL

Always you have the branch ready

for the exact rose; you walk alert

always, the warm ear in the doorway

of your body, toward the unexpected arrow.

A wave does not move from nothing

except it raise from your open shadow

the larger light. By night you are awake,

in your star, to the wakeful life.

You place upon things an indelible signature.

Then, glory returned upon the peaks,

you will revive in all that you have sealed.

Your rose will be the norm of roses;

your ear the norm of harmony; your thought,

of light; your vigil will be the norm of stars.