Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction

It must be abstract. The idea is to see a human thing As the sonic wave of thought clutching the heart, Not tightly, but it gives balanced weight; Other men must feel it, And beyond, otherness touches, too, and knows.

So—let this be clear: I know the sunlight is in at day’s noon; What grows is soft, and light bends like faces. All that is still under it stands too, passively;— What is man will meet the sky on thriving ground, Be but illuminated within the steed of space.

It must have things both pro and con as well,— Gentle in wind, yet strong as snow in blizzards, For every mountain is almost earth’s shadow, Yet too it related transports light To feel its growth—a spaceful kin.

Only so! Wish by wish, the need looks and thinks— Recalling the great notes pushing forth, beatitudes.

• Wallace Stevens