I

the operatic whisper in the darkroom

tinkly underneath my skin calls to mind

the ditty of the longshoreman

The ancient harmonies of his song

are full of wistfulness

It is certainly nothing like prayer

Rather the exultation and calm of living

—a bracket, a nest which holds

the very amplitude of prayer

II

Warmth, furry and large-bodied, sidles up

beside me, like a walrus against large stones

Physicists say large bodies, never huge bodies

For there's an ecstasy implicit in huge

which science says is not useful to feel

I love science for how it gives me language

to fit the precise character of things

Like Adam, the first scientist, like Noah

I go about collecting the world and naming it

axolotl, white dwarf, homo sapien, black body

I name the world because I must tame it

III

I name the world because I must save it

Armed with language, I am fitted out for good deeds

I am growing toward the light

I am growing out of the darkness toward the light

This is how all life begins—out of darkness

a castor oil seedling from the rich black soil

a human child from the mother's liquid passage

the earth out of primal waters

I name the world because it is my duty

I owe myself a record of my own steadfastness

I listen to myself and name myself

I listen to a man and name the man

I hear his singing and name his singing

I call it a nest awaiting a prayer