Falling into the green and outstretched palm of the world
The messenger is visible and is heard to sing:
‘Today I bring you good news, the same good news as ever:
Down by the wide lakes the giant suns have risen,
Lighting the sails of boats going outwards forever.
Today I bring you good news, the same good news as ever:
Autumn’s sailors, disappearing over the rim of the world,
Are not lost nor drowned nor crying.
Their mouths are stuffed with apples.
Their bodies are cool as the morning’s grasses.
Their lungs are opened up like flowers.
And today I bring you strange news, the same strange news as ever:
This country will never be lost,
Every morning it is born afresh,
Every morning it is born forever,
Yet the children who cross it laughing (O strangest of mammals!)
Will not return if their sight is ruined.
And today I bring you good advice, simple advice the same as ever:
You must celebrate the morning in your blood,
For nothing dies there, nothing ends,
Over and over again you must invent yourselves,
True magicians, riding the senses of dust,
Know that with this gift you’re blest.’