Orient
September 8, 1987
La Venta, California Sunday mornings, early, as the bells begin, horizontal, pearly, dawn achieves a thin
immanence. Where I walk nervous quail awake; still the tollings rock for the people's sake;
still a constant wind balances the flight of a white gull pinned rigid in gray light;
still bent cypress trees offer shelter till daybreak; still the seas break beneath the hill.