A Grave
Marianne Moore
Man looking into the sea,
Taking the view from those who have as much right to it as
you have to it yourself,
it is human nature to stand in the middle of a thing,
but you cannot stand in the middle of this;
The horizon we observe as we look out to sea exists in some untouchable, unrealizable place between the constant mutations and motions of the water and the air. It is the horizon that was there yesterday – and is it the horizon that will be there tomorrow? The very fact of the horizon is what is immutable; it is an infinite dividing line between infinite entities, a place toward which the mind journeys and yet a place that appears as a continuous, productive deferral of place.
Susan Stewart, What thought is like, p.103.
