from The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz: 1957-1987

excerpt from “Blanco” (if only because I can’t present the whole thing)

[. . .]
No and Yes
together
two syllables in love

If the world is real
the world is unreal
If the world is real
the world
is the cleft the splendor the whirl
No
Disappearances and appearances
Yes
the tree of names
Real unreal
are words
they are air nothing

Unreal
speech
brings reality to silence
Keeping still
is a strand of language
silence
seal
scintilla
on the forehead
on the lips
before it evaporates
Appearances and disappearances
Reality and its resurrections
Silence rests in speech

The spirit
is an invention of the body
The body
is an invention of the world
The world
Is an invention of the spirit
No Yes
The unreality of the seen
transparency is all that remains
Your footsteps in the next room
The green thunder
Ripening
In the foliage of the sky
You are naked
like a syllable
like a flame
an island of flames
the passion of compassionate coals
The world
a bundle of your images
drowned in music
Your body
spilled on my body
seen
dissolved
brings reality to seeing