i am the shipwreck under sail
           searching for her darkness
or the pearl you discover when drowning
            caught in a dream outside himself

there was no one near to help
                                               he believed
           the dark under the oak was an orphan
                                               was a broken seed
there could be no rising from

a precarious life climbs up inside you
           a black butterfly    in the heart's incense
                        dark and delicate tendrils of wine

simple fall and crystalline
intricate machines of vanished moments
the outside of silence ::
                                                        snow

a small light can attract the darkness
mouth of sighs    breath of hearts

through a dark hole in the wind
                                   falls the dust that becomes song—
             sighs that have known being human

the naked eye is a question for the moon—
           extinguished    alone    dressed in white bone

the tiny bones of what i have not been
           are like sycamores without fear
or a girl who is happier than the moon

the rose within the rose    is what i hold in the deep of my hand

then i woke with the sun on the backs of wild geese
            as the branches of day were spreading

what is the sound of an island of night    in a sea it cannot name

coming home at twilight falls away    and i am aware of the wings that hold us down

in the perfect darkness of what is to become    is there a name for the mother of dawn

will the landscape of the last dawn arrive gently    in the mirror of a voyage without end

my black years fall around me, blood of the night    a body without sky without stars

with my ear on the ground i am singing to this     what dies in a man when he lives

for all of those who are hidden from you    draw near to the dark and listen

you went looking for your voice at sunrise    
          silence growing brighter and
the pleasure of death to go through

before there is nature    when the world is half spoken    in whom shall the secret lie

an emanation from the lost and the mists    and the nothing i am doing comes to unrest

there is an ancient animal breath in the night    that is night that is refuge    that is mine

strange fires seek their deep    as the milk that surrenders her breast

the sea scent of heaven and of who will awaken there    when at last i disappear

in a world of other seas    will an older darkness still lift the waves

the faces i have never seen before, and the faces we wear    not to lose each other

who would alter the root of light    but the stars must first die out

...or to lose your way in the darkness    swelling with tomorrow's death    ?

in the dark life i've just finished    a single light is left on