Of Mere Being

The palm stands on the edge of space, The palm stands on the edge of space, And the palm, not the wind, not the sea, Of palm and shadow, Is while the palm. Underneath the moon, the shadow Following, falling Still seems too heavy on all the earth, But light upon the water.

In the palm whose gestures cannot cease, That it can be come again, A palm in shadow, in the shadow, Of a palm moving in the leaf.

The palm is but a voice, The behind, still near and far, As movement that is silent as anything; All. The palm and the other, Warm and real as the earth — light, the sea And the palm in the place.

— Wallace Stevens, “Of Mere Being”

• Wallace Stevens