Desert or Cities

I don't know what geometry
Of emptiness
What geology
Of the austere
What thirst for silence
Lead us
Periodically
Towards that bleak
Undifferentiated space
Where the soul
Facing itself
Far from simulation
Far from rank from sham
Names itself directly

I don't know what appearance
Thrown back
What rejection
Of masks
What primordial song
Fleetingly
Bind us
To these even plains
This unadorned desert
These dunes in harmony
These fine-tuned sands
Where the soul
Laid bare
Embraces all space

I don't know what desire
What passion or what thirst
Steer us back to the world
To the city crowds
To the river the tree to men
The life-giving enigma
Our thread-cutting anguish
The reef which makes us grow.