David Whyte: "The Opening of Eyes"

                   
                      That day I saw beneath dark clouds
                      the passing light over the water
                      and I heard the voice of the world speak out,
                      I knew then, as I had before
                      life is no passing memory of what has been
                      nor the remaining pages in a great book
                      waiting to be read.

                      It is the opening of eyes long closed.
                      It is the vision of far off things
                      seen for the silence they hold.
                      It is the heart after years
                      of secret conversing
                      speaking out loud in the clear air.

                      It is Moses in the desert
                      fallen to his knees before the lit bush.
                      It is the man throwing away his shoes
                      as if to enter heaven
                      and finding himself astonished,
                      opened at last,
                      fallen in love with solid ground.

"The Opening of Eyes" by David Whyte, from Songs for Coming Home. © Many Rivers Press, 1984.  

Photography credit: Detail from "Man Kisses the Ground," taken in Boston, Massachusetts, on August 30, 2007, by booksin (originally black and white).