All selections © 2000 The Literary Estate of Ronald Johnson,
from To Do as Adam Did: Selected Poems of Ronald Johnson, Talisman Press, 2000

Stereopticon (for Lorine Niedecker)

What we wanted

was both words and worlds
you could put your foot through. To be

eye-deep in air,

and the inside of all things
clear

to the horizon. Clear

to the core.