altars of light :: pierre joris

If the light is the soul
then soul is what’s
all around me.

It is you,
it is around you too,
it is you.

The darkness is inside me,
the opaqueness of organs folded
upon organs–

to make light in the house of
the body–
      thus to bring the
outside in,
      the impossible job.

      And the only place to become
the skin
      the border, the inbetween, where
dark meets light, where I meets
      you.

      In the house of world the
many darknesses are surrounded
by light.

      To see the one, we need
the other / it cuts both ways

      light on light is blind
      dark on dark is blind

      light through dark is not

      dark through light is movement
      dark through light becomes,
is becoming,
      to move through
light is becoming,

      is all
            we can know.

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