Why does the earth heave and pull
to greet me with a new dawn
filtering the mist with light strands;
painting a fresh horizon?

I am stranded now
for I have abandoned
all that I have loved or held near
I have one refuge
that is sacred.

Wearing no swaddling clothes
I wriggle alone in the dewy grass
and count my first breaths 1,2,3.
having won my lonely place
above, below before me
on either side
no obstacles, no eyes meet my gaze.

Awake New World
for I am your gift;
lift me up, spin me round
dearer shall we make this day!

But words to my lips rise
jumble and fall
to the jagged earth,
and like mushrooms melt away.

Nature stands against
So I forge my will through her
My speech
is silent on the earth's ear
Swallowed up in the sear of the sun.

To forge an endless highway
deep into the day
further and further out toward the surface
of all things---
I stand on the stormy edge at midday:
precise walls,
this exact moment...

To bear no more the dry surface
To carve a course toward the distant sea.