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| Vermeer, The Geographer, 1662 |
The Mapmaker
Vermeer's geographer goes on looking
out of the window at a world that he
alone sees while in the room around him
the light has not moved as the centuries
have revolved in silence behind their clouds
beyond the leaves the seasons the numbers
he has not seen them out of that window
the world he sees is there as we see him
looking out at the light there in the window
-W.S. Merwin, from Garden Time, Copper Canyon Press (2016)