I'VE ALWAYS THOUGHT

I’VE ALWAYS THOUGHT

I’ve always thought a shared vision was best,

the tree, doubly witnessed, sweeter in the fruit,

the star seen rising over the hill by two,

exponentially enhanced in its shining

because it binds more than itself and another

in the herb of its light, because

nothing exists except as the sum of the eyes that have seen it

either side of the mirror, and two watching

in love or friendship

realize the world as a solitary river

with an infinite number of confluent banks

unravelling like snakes in every direction,

none flowing the wrong way, all,

the vivid wavelength of an ancient pulse

that grows a heart like a door in a tree,

a lighthouse in the dark

or the moon on the breast of a wave.

Look at a shoelace or a chromosome

or the wings of a thermalling hawk

to see what I mean:

one and together make three,

and three makes everything a shape of space.

I and you are only two, a mere reflection.

But when you look upon something with love,

one glance is enough to show you

all the rivers and trees and valleys of earth,

all the flowers and mountains and birds,

all the fingertips and bells and tides and tears,

all the planets clustered like cherries

that laboured to make your face

the mould and model of their own,

right down to the urns of the stars

that marrowed the gold of your bones

out of the ashes of their dead, all there

from the very beginning of all

when God said let there be light

and there was only light and God

until the light said

let there be love instead

let there be love instead

let there be love instead

and the dark was filled with eyes.

PATRICK WHITE