beginning (it is north everywhere)

.

Long before spring

king of the black cranes

rises one day

from the black

needle’s eye

on the white plain

under the white sky

the crown turns

and the eye

drilled clear through his head

turns

it is north everywhere

come out he says

come out then

the light is not yet

divided

it is a long way 

to the first

anything

come even so

we will start

bring your nights with you

—W.S. Merwin

The Carriers of Ladders, 

Pulitzer Prize for poetry, 1971

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