Nearsights Quotes

“These little irises could be your eyes’
if they were twice as large and twice as dark,
but if I got inside them–can I find
the vein that is the tunnel to your heart?
I may be in there: I see signs of movement
under the silky shadow/luminescence;
is it feeling’s fierce integument
or a more troubled, more elusive essence?
Your other eyes have locked me out sometimes
(they have good reason to) but not ignored
the guilty pleading boring out from mine
there are no words for, as there are no words
for what these lacquer seeds say. Irritation
brought them on, but patience made them pearls,
the same slow labor that piles years of pages up–
call it obsession, plodding, imitation,
pigheadedness, simplicity, devotion:
Out of the dented life burled nacre curls
until the final jewel locks rays and rages up.
Remember when you wear these little worlds.”
― Jonathan Galassi, Nearsights: Selected Poems of Valerio Magrelli