The poetry that took the shape of a shelter

Early morning, when poetry takes the shape of a shelter. Wallace Stevens' La Roca.

THE POEM THAT TOOK THE PLACE OF A MOUNTAIN

There it was, word for word,
The poem that took the place of a mountain.

He breathed its oxygen,
Even when the book lay turned in the dust of his table.

It reminded him how he had needed
A place to go to in his own direction,

How he had recomposed the pines,
Shifted the rocks and picked his way among clouds,

For the outlook that would be right,
Where he would be complete in an unexplained completion:

The exact rock where his inexactness
Would discover, at last, the view toward which they had edged,

Where he could lie and, gazing down at the sea,
Recognize his unique and solitary home.

- Wallace Stevens

EL POEMA QUE OCUPABA EL LUGAR DE UNA MONTAÑA

Allí estaba, palabra por palabra,
el poema que ocupaba el lugar de una montaña.

Él respiraba su oxígeno,
aun cuando el libro estaba vuelto sobre el polvo de su mesa.

Le recordaba cuánto había necesitado
un lugar al que ir por su propio camino,

cómo había vuelto a componer los pinos,
apartado las rocas y andado con cuidado entre las nubes,

hasta hallar la atalaya que fuera la adecuada,
donde estuviera él completo en un inexplicado completarse:

la roca exacta donde sus inexactitudes
descubrieran, por fin, la vista hacia la cual habían avanzado,

donde pudiera echarse y, fijando los ojos en el mar,
reconocer su única y solitaria casa.

- Wallace Stevens