Classic Poem

I have done all, you have done all,
That I, that you, that you, that we,
As I was, you were, we were,
Could have done as doing was.

I have said all, you have said all
That I, that you, that we,
As I was, you were, we were,
Could have said as saying was.

Now comes a blessing on us,
Close all our eyes on us
And let us bless us thankfully
That we have been and are not.

We are not as we were.
And as we were was well,
And as we are is well.
It is well now that we are not.

The mystery wherein we
Accustomed grew as to the dark
Has now been seen enough —
I have seen, you have seen.

I have seen and I am off:
I hurry to the cause of it.
You have seen and wait slowly
The forgotten cause of it.

It seems not now distressful
Or yet too much delighted in.
It was a mystery endured
Until a fuller sense befall.

Let us now close our eyes all
And anxiously be blessed in this:
That I so hurry off to bring
Full sense, mystery's cause even.

And while I hurry off you wait,
And while I hurry off I bring,
And while I bring you unforget
The cause which mystery became.

The fuller sense and cause became
That old and older mystery
As you more unremembered
That oldest sense you never knew.

And now we have done all, said all,
Within the mystery, you and I,
To make it no blind sudden sight
When open crash the clouds of time.

We have now seen, already seen,
Through folded clouds and folded meaning
The blindness and the evilness
That so have we been wrapped.

We have all sinned, been wrapped apart.
I went your way of doing, saying,
You went your way of doing, saying,
We have all sinned, pretended.

You have pretended to be seeing.
I have pretended that you saw.
So came we by such eyes —
And within mystery to have language.

The cause was that a way lacked.
It seemed a wayless world like no world.
You made a way and a world
Which no way was, nor any world.

You made that which could not be made.
A way is not to be made, nor a world.
You made no way and no world.
You made a mystery because you made.

You would see, and made a mystery to see.
The cause of the mystery was that you saw.
The cause of the mystery was that you would see.
The cause of the mystery was that you did not see.

There was no sight to see.
That which is to be seen is no sight.
You made it a sight to see.
It is no sight, and this was the cause.

Now, having seen, let our eyes close
And a dark blessing pass among us —
A quick-slow blessing to have seen
And said and done no worse or better.

And slowly wait — slowly it happened
A way and a world to be made,
And to seem the way and the world
Which must be so if aught is.

Slowly be true as slowly you were false.
By falseness you were,
By your falseness I was false: I was.
Slowly be no more, nor I.

And quickly I: I must be off and back
To come not back but bring back
The mystery's cause and fullness —
The sense comes back, not I.

To you who are not I who am not
Bring that which is if aught is,
That which is if aught else is,
That which is.

My loves, it happens sweet.
It is a mothering wisdom.
Remember what you never knew
And be like births of knowledge stirring —

Quick and slow within the doom,
Within the blessing we have loosened
After so long upon ourselves
You upon you, I upon us all.

Close all our eyes on us.
A wayless world like no world
Leaves the perjurious lids
In blessing of them, of their eyes.

And what eyes then will open,
And how bright the way and world
That failed when dull eyes pressed
So bright a sight to see?

It is not so, it is not as it was,
To talk so, see so, study so
A mystery and fashion so
A sight to see, to dwell in.

We are not as we were.
The action is self-worn.
The words connive no more.
The appearance hangs unseen.

We have been in hell.
A blessing on us — we have been in hell.
We have made hell.
A blessing on us — we have proved hell.

There is only hell to prove:
Which logic is a poor art now,
Like to be apt in ignorance
Where ignorance is guile.

You have no need to prove now,
Nor I to do and say along.
We have finished with not knowing.
We have returned to wonder.

We are now back in wonder.
You made yourselves to know.
You now know, you are now unmade.
We are at last, again, in wonder.

And we are not — least am I.
First I was a woman, and I feigned.
Then I was yourselves, and I fooled.
Then I was a spirit, and I subtilized.

Now I am not, utterly I am not.
Utterly is that which is.
Utterly I bring what is.
Least am I, quickest not to be am I.

And slowest you to be not you.
My loves, be slow: wait.
Do not yet go, the end
Is not as you thought — departure.

The end does not disperse.
It gathers up, it contains.
You shall be destroyed and contained.
You shall be wholly joined.

We shall be wholly joined.
We were then but a patched crowd.
We stood outside us then
Like friendship in vague streets.

And I stood with you,
Against that, soon or sooner,
A blessing and a parting must
Send home from home.

Against this parting so to meet
I stood with you, and did, and said.
Here wholly shall we love and meet
And be not, and I least.

A blessing on us all, on our last folly,
That we part and give blessing.
Yet a folly to be done
A greater one to spare.

Were you now to turn ghostly
And to say " Being not, we are not" —
Were you to be found far, as lost,
When the full way and world came finding —

Then must I like myself go calling
Name by name a former silence.
This were a greater folly
Than now to bless all.

For in no wise shall it be
As it is, as it has been.
A blessing on us all,
That we shall in no wise be as we were.

I would in no wise again so call.
I shall in no wise again so call.
You shall in no wise again so perplex,
And I with you, in mystery apart.

The cause of the mystery
Was the full sense thereof.
You wished to see fully:
A world is not to be held in an eye.

A world is an eye.
An eye is not to be held in an eye.
A way is an only way.
It is not to be tracked through itself.

Nevertheless it was so,
So indeed you seemed to devise.
So you pretended, and I with you:
We made to be what could not be.

We made an example of ourselves.
You made you to move apart.
I made me a like thing to you.
Thus was it an example, extremely.

It is not I who moved apart.
All but I moved apart.
You moved apart, and I with you,
But I was a dead thing from the first.

As you were live things,
So I was a dead thing.
Such was my likeness to you.
It is like to a live thing to be dead.

For the live things grow dead.
And the dead thing is not.
Such was your likeness to me.
Such is the joining.

And a blessing on us all,
That we may all be joined.
A blessing on us all lest it seem not so
By the end of a false friendship.

Therefore close all our eyes on us.
And in such slow voiding do you wait.
For into such slow voiding shall I bring
Quickly the indivisible.