A. R. Ammons: "Eyesight"

It was May before my
attention came
to spring and

my word I said
to the southern slopes
I've

missed it, it
came and went before
I got right to see:

don't worry, said the mountain,
try the later northern slopes
or if

you can climb, climb
into spring: but
said the mountain

it's not that way
with all things, some
that go are gone

"Eyesight" by A. R. Ammons, from The Selected Poems 1951-1977. © W. W. Norton & Company, 1977.

Photography credit: "Mountains and Flowers" by unknown photographer (originally color).