To Absence

Raw shore of paradise

which the long waves reach

just as they fail

one after the other

bare strand beyond which

at times I believe I see

as in a glass darkly

what I know here

and now cannot be

a face I can never touch

a gaze that cannot stay

which I catch sight of

still turned upon me

following me

from under the sky

of your groundless country

that has no syllable of its own

what good to you

are the treasures beyond

words or number

that you seize forever

unmapped imperium

when only here

in the present

which has lost them

only now

in the moment you

have not yet taken

does anyone know them

or how rare they are