Saturday, October 28, 2023

Vermeer's Geographer (an Enigma)


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)