If I were asked to name the chief benefit of the home, I should say: the house shelters daydreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.

Words are clamor-filled shells. There's many a story in the miniature of a single word!

It is the silence, rather, that obliges the poet to listen, and gives the dream greater intimacy. We hardly know where to situate this silence, whether in the vast world or in the immense past. But we do know that it comes from beyond a wind that dies down or a rain that grows gentle.

Ecoute bien pourtant. Non pas
mes paroles, mais le tumulte qui
s'eleve en ton corps lorsque tu t'ecoutes.

Au loin
j'entendais prier
les sources de la terre.