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THE OTHER HOUSE I come back again to the old house that I thought I knew for most of a lifetime the house I reclaimed from abandon and ruin and that I called my home at times when I was here and at times when I was somewhere far from here this time I have not come to reclaim anything but to move nothing and to touch nothing as though I were a ghost or here in a dream and I know it is a dream that has no age in this dream the same river is still here the house is the old house and I am here in the morning in the sunlight and the same bird is singing TO WORDS IN THEIR SLEEP Have you slept the whole summer away here with the dogs do you believe in waking do you dream that you are somewhere else do you remember what you meant to say do you remember the sounds of voices you once heard do you know who you are do you still speak the old language are you older than you can say you who never told the whole story only what came to mind NO TWILIGHT How suddenly now it seems that the day is over and on the island where I have lived these late happy years of my life that Paula and I have been together there is no twilight when the day is done the day's shadow is gone in the moment it was here with all that went before gone the same way into the one night where time means nothing that is visible when I look up after the light has gone hearing a seed fall somewhere in the dark