Ryoan-ji, fifteenth century
When the world is reduced
To clusters of rock
Strewn on bare and,
World becomes essence.
When tame sand is raked
Into algebras
Of orderly lines
And orderly circles,
The wildness is framed -
Each rock is a magnet.
And each has been threaded
As if by haphazard
And grouped into five
Spaced constellations
The mind hovers here
On the brink of creation.
Energy flows
From the magical scene,
So changeless and changing
It is never exhausted.
In autumn a leaf falls
And makes a notation.
Sun shafting cloud
Touches one rock alive.
Spring shadows delve
Pools here and there.
A snow-thatch in winter
Makes other distinctions.
All things are suspended
In shifting light and shade -
All but the themes itself:
Fifteen rocks and sand
Weaving a silent fugue
down through the centuries,
So changeless and changing
It is never exhausted.
-May Sarton
