The Descent
William Carlos Williams


The descent beckons
             as the ascent beckoned.
                               Memory is a kind
of accomplishment,
             a sort of renewal
                               even
an initiation, since the spaces it opens are new places
             inhabited by hordes
                               heretofore unrealized,
of new kinds—
             since their movements
                               are toward new objectives
(even though formerly they were abandoned).

No defeat is made up entirely of defeat—since
the world it opens is always a place
             formerly
                               unexpected. A
world lost,
             a world unsuspected,
                               beckons to new places
and no whiteness (lost) is so white as the memory
of whiteness       .     

With evening, love wakens
             though its shadows
                               which are alive by reason
of the sun shining—
             grow sleepy now and drop away
                               from desire       .

Love without shadows stirs now
             beginning to awaken
                               as night
advances.

The descent
             made up of despairs
                               and without accomplishments
realizes a new awakening:
                               which is a reversal
of despair.
             For what we cannot accomplish, what
is denied to love,
             what we have lost in the anticipation—
                               a descent follows,
endless and indestructible       .