The Descent by William Carlos Williams

methos

The Descent
William Carlos Williams

The descent beckons
          as the ascent beckoned.
                     Memory is a kind
of accomplishment,
          a sort of renewal
                     even
an initiation, since the spaces it opens are new places
          inhabited by hordes
                     heretofore unrealized,
of new kinds--
          since their movements
                     are toward new objectives
(even though formerly they were abandoned).

No defeat is made up entirely of defeat--since
the world it opens is always a place
          formerly
                     unsuspected. A
world lost,
          a world unsuspected,
                     beckons to new places
and no whiteness (lost) is so white as the memory
of whiteness     .

With evening, love wakens
          though its shadows
                     which are alive by reason
of the sun shining--
          grow sleepy now and drop away
                     from desire  .

Love without shadows stirs now
          beginning to awaken
                     as night
advances.

The descent
          made up of despairs
                     and without accomplishment
realizes a new awakening:
                     which is a reversal
of despair.
          For what we cannot accomplish, what
is denied to love,
          what we have lost in the anticipation--
                     a descent follows,
endless and indestructible    .