Beggars and Kings

November 30, 2007

Beggars and Kings

In the evening

all the hours that weren’t used

are emptied out

and  the beggars are waiting  to gather them up

to open them

to find the sun in each one

and teach it its beggar’s name

and sing to it it is well

through the night

 

but each of us

has his own kingdom of pains

and has not yet found them all

and is sailing in search of them day and night

infallible undisputing unresting

filled with a dumb use

and its time

like a finger in a world without hands

 

~W.S. Merwin

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