In this poem, the speaker begins by describing the moment and way in which poetry arrived to him. It is divided into three stanzas; each stanza explains a specific piece of this experience with poetry. In the first stanza, the speaker describes the way in which poetry came to him. It had been "in search" of him (line 2). He does not remember how, when, or why it happened. He explains, "they were not voices, they were not/words, nor silence,/but from a street I was summoned." This seems to say he was not given the words. He did not begin to write out of a silence. He was taken from that street. He was called to during the normalcy of life, the street. He went "abruptly from the others/among violent fires/or returning alone." He was chosen, or chose to go alone to poetry. In these lines it is unclear what is acting on what. Is poetry acting on the speaker; or is the speaker acting on poetry? The speaker could have been singled out 'among violent fires' and taken by poetry. He could also be returning to poetry alone, in search of something. The last line of this stanza states, "and there I was without a face/and it touched me." These last lines exemplify the confusion of this first stanza. The speaker seems to be alone in this world, a little out of place even. He is in a state of confusion when poetry comes to him and touches him. It is poetry that comes to the speaker.
             In the second stanza, the speaker is trying to accept this poetry into his life. In the beginning, he does "not know what to say" (line 14). He is still uneasy about this poetry. He is confused. "My mouth/had no way/with names,/my eyes were blind," he explains in the first section of the second stanza. This part of the poem mirrors the first stanza in the way that he feels out of control. He is trying to see with his eyes, feel with his hands, speak with his mouth. Th...