Reading Borges

How many spheres contained
           within a marble sphere 
the gift of sculpture
           that sees forms within forms
the blind poet from the Argentine
           so aware of the infinity of infinities
in time and space and how every
           human gesture is necessarily
humbled by the algebras of history
           how the rose rises
above the archetype
           and how heroism is an act
not of the sword
           but of the imagination
the poet who conjures
           with words to create
a parallel universe
           in which Odysseus
is forever at sea and Penelope
           an unattainable promise

John Lyons