Pyramids Pillars of Snow

Whatever hath no beginning

May be confident of no end—

Eternity we disagree

Exists, but on mortality,

Better yet, change, we’re of one mind.

The upshot is that what you find

To be confined to one side, death,

I find to be the immortal

Itself, the longest perspective,

That the short and the long are one,

Nothing varying but the rate

Of variation, forever.

But I’m tired of thinking this through,

Much as it troubles me and much

As I admire you. It won’t do

To keep repeating all changes

And that therefore all disappears,

Except for the disappearing,

Which has no beginning, no end,

And is the immortality

Of eternal mortality.

Here we are. Your language you knew

Would not last forever but would

Outlast you, now my language, too.