“I will tell you how it was the world changed”

Robert Bringhurst

I will tell you how it was the world changed

at the precipice of his life

watching a man clinging to breath

die slowly by drowning

his hands reaching up

in parting, it is then

the world enters you.

The world gives itself up to you

more real than flesh

more real than the body you inhabit

more than air

more than water

in its great turning

all returning,

light is all that remains

growing like a tide inside you.

I will tell you how it was the world changed

between us time and space

dissolved

silences full of language

sightless eyes bright

opening to another world

inside of this one

growing visible

in his blind eyes and mine

joined in the heart’s transmission.

Wisdom, holy, eternal love

being at the edge of a cliff

where it all opens out

no ground, nothing left,

everything held in emptiness.