Liber Solis - Chapter 5

Verses

Verse 1

At dawn a small white deer came out of the reeds with one broken antler, and the sun touched the wound first.

Verse 2

The deer asked the light, “Why do you always find what is hurt?” And the light said nothing, but stayed there.

Verse 3

A red bird landed beside him and said, “Maybe the wound is only a window that forgot it was a window.”

Verse 4

The deer did not understand this, which is how most true things begin.

Verse 5

They walked east together, though the sun was already coming toward them from everywhere.

Verse 6

In a field they met a lamb sleeping beside its own shadow. The shadow looked more awake than the lamb.

Verse 7

“I am afraid of being soft,” said the lamb. “Everything with teeth seems to notice.”

Verse 8

The bird replied, “Soft things are noticed by teeth, yes. They are also noticed by hands.”

Verse 9

The deer thought this was either wisdom or a very dangerous way to live.

Verse 10

Near noon they found a moth resting beneath a yellow flower, hiding from the brightness it had searched for all night.

Verse 11

The moth said, “I wanted the light until it became too much light.” No one laughed at her.

Verse 12

Even longing has eyelids.

Verse 13

They rested beside a river, and the sun broke into ten thousand pieces on the water without becoming less whole.

Verse 14

The bird said, “Look. This is what happens to the One when something begins counting.”

Verse 15

The deer looked at every shining piece and could not find which one was the real sun.

Verse 16

A fish rose from below and said, “Maybe the mistake is asking which reflection owns the light.”

Verse 17

Then it vanished, because fish rarely stay to explain themselves.

Verse 18

By afternoon the deer was tired. He lay beneath a fig tree and confessed that sometimes he wished he were made of stone.

Verse 19

“Stones break too,” said the lamb. “They just take longer to admit it.”

Verse 20

A wind came through the branches and carried away three white feathers from the bird.

Verse 21

The bird watched them go and smiled. “What leaves me was never outside the sky.”

Verse 22

The deer asked, “Then what can truly be lost?” The bird answered, “Mostly names.”

Verse 23

They climbed a hill where the grass had burned gold beneath the sun, and every seed waited inside something that looked dead.

Verse 24

There are forms of tenderness that resemble ruin from far away.

Verse 25

At the hilltop they found a fox with a thorn in its paw. The lamb was afraid, but still came close.

Verse 26

The fox trembled when the thorn was pulled free. For one moment predator and prey forgot the names given to them.

Verse 27

The sun lowered behind them, turning all five creatures into one long shadow.

Verse 28

“There,” said the bird. “Your bodies disagree, but your darkness has already become one.”

Verse 29

The deer laughed, and even the fox did too, though fox laughter sounds like something being kept secret.

Verse 30

When evening came, the deer finally asked why his antler had broken. The bird said, “So you would follow the place where the light entered.”

Verse 31

The deer looked back and saw no road behind them, only grass bending where many small bodies had passed.

Verse 32

Before sleeping, the lamb whispered, “What if morning never comes?” The deer answered, “Then perhaps we will discover what was shining before it.”

Verse 33

And before dawn the creatures dreamed the same dream: that none of them were carrying the light, none were seeking it, and none had ever stood outside it.