Poetry of Eli Siegel
It Is the Highest Prudence to Be Worthy of the Invitation Things as Rooms Give
Let there be
Invitations from everything
To the very depths of you.
The invitations now stand.
Realities are invitations.
When you were born, you were invited to something.
It is the same invitation now you have,
Only shown in ever so many ways
And all the ways are things.
Things are invitations,
The meaning of which just doesn’t stop.
Meaning is an aspect of the invitation all things give.
All meaning is a room
You can go into.
The room is charmingly indescribable, it changes so.
But it stands, it is.
Things are rooms you can go into
With profit and bliss.
The room of things is their meaning.
You are invited to this room, O wayfarer,
Among happenings and objects.
It is prudent to be worthy of the invitation,
O wayfarer, O person.
Indeed, it is the highest prudence.