Paradoxalement c’est la mort elle-même, décidant
pour l’éternité, qui à jamais nous sauve de l’inexs-
tence….Celui qui a été ne peut plus désormais
ne pas avoir été….Tout est perdu, tous est donc
sauvé.

Strange to say, it is death itself, making a final decision,
that rescues us once and for all from nonexistence….
What has once been can henceforth never not have
been….All is lost, so all is saved…

—Vladimir Jankélévitch
     L’Irréversible et la nostalgie
     The irreversible and nostalgia

The Physics of Light

As for nature, said Cezanne,
that substance, nature, for us humans,
is more depth than it is surface.

What exists, from our perspective,
is always a little bit wider than it is tall
and a little bit deeper than it is wide,

and full of sloping planes and sharpened corners.
The colors charge each other up.
Light dances in between them.
That is where the truth begins and hides.

You may imagine getting past this
just by changing your position,
stepping to one side. And yet,
no matter where you stand,

the longest axis of what is
leads straight away from where you are
and comes straight toward you,
nailing you in place.

When you open your eyes
the sight of it pins you,
plants you, puts you where you are.