Nov. 30, 2020
A singer may be innocent
never the song. With its instantaneous eyes
opened on to the world
and its heart laid bare,
the song is brazen,
the song is newborn.
Only when it has quietened
can listeners resume by habit
the innocence of their age.
When a great singer sings, the skin of space and of time go taut, the voices of the newborn fill the world, there is no corner left of silence or of innocence, the gown of life is turned inside out, the singer becomes earth and sky, time past and time to come are singing one of the songs of a single life.
Age. Date and place of birth.
Permanent address.
Date of entry into the country.
from and our faces, my heart, brief as photos (1984, Pantheon Books)