Octavio Paz

Summit and Gravity

Summit and Gravity - meaning Summary

Nature as Personal Revelation

The poem presents a lyrical encounter where landscape and beloved merge into a single presence. Trees, rivers, birds and light create a cascading, physical influx that both overwhelms and grounds the speaker. The addressee appears as a fiery, solar figure who also embodies a "transparent balance," holding together firmness and vertigo. The poem explores how desire and perception transform nature into a stabilizing but ecstatic human presence.

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There's a motionless tree And another one coming forward A river of trees Hits my chest The green surge Is good fortune You are dressed in red You are The seal of the scorched year The carnal firebrand The star fruit In you like sun The hour rests Above an abyss of clarities The height is clouded by birds Their beaks construct the night Their wings carry the day Planted in the crest of light Between firmness and vertigo You are Transparent balance

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