Whatever I was able to acquire in my life
by way of acts visible to all.
That is to win my own transparence
I owe to a kind of special courage poetry gave me.
To be wind for the kite and kite for the wind
even when the sky is missing.
I'm not playing with words.
I mean, the moment you discover being
written in an instant when you can open it and make it last.
When, in fact, sorrow becomes grace, and grace, angel.
Joy alone and sister joy with white, long pleats
over the void, a void full of bird dew, basil breeze,
and hiss of resonant paradise.
I believe this was the first poet I ever read.
I was about 14, and I'd like to read some of the poems
that I read at that time.