"An Upward Look"
An Upward Look
Oh heart green acre sown with salt
by the departing occupier
lay down your gallant spears of wheat
Salt of the earth each stellar pinch
flung in blind defiance backwards
now takes its toll Up from his quieted
quarry the lover colder and wiser
hauling himself finds the world turning
toys triumphs toxins into
this vast facility the living come
dearest to die in How did it happen
In bright alternation minutely mirrored
Within the thinking of each and every
mortal creature halves of a clue
approach the earthlinghts Morning star
evening star salt of the sky
First the grave dissolving into dawn
the the crucial recrystallizing
from the inmost depths of clear dark blue
Excerpted from COLLECTED POEMS by James Merrill. Copyright© 2001 by the Literary Estate of James Merrill at Washington University. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., a division of
Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this poem may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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