"Of the Surface of Things"

I

In my room, the world is beyond my understanding; 

But when I walk I see that it consists of three or four 

Hills and a cloud.

II

From my balcony, I survey the yellow air, 

Reading where I have written, 

"The spring is like a belle undressing."

III

The gold tree is blue, 

The singer has pulled his cloak over his head. 

The moon is in the folds of the cloak.

Upon opening my Bible, I happened to come across this particular poem. A poem about poetry perhaps more obviously stated than others. I found the three sections to be a series of steps or dimensions in the process of writing poetry.

The first verse is observing the world in an immediate reality. "In my room, the world is beyond my understanding." The poet seems stuck, confined to a state of mind that does not let him see past the common reality of things. It's not until the poet ventures outside of his comfort zones and give up his illusions that he is able to progress.

In the second verse, the balcony acts as a threshold between dimensions of reality and imagination. He is in the "yellow air" of enlightenment, an altered state of consciousness that helps him converse between the outside world of reality and the inside world of imagination. 

In the third verse, the poet is lost in his revelation crossing over into the realm of imagination. The poet is no longer bound to mimicking what he sees in the world. The cloak he wears is his imagination and within it he can obscure the immediate reality of the world and finally see the world as it truly is.