Is My Soul Asleep? by Antonio Machado

Is my soul asleep?
Have those beehives that work
in the night stopped? And the water-
wheel of thought, is it
going around now, cups
empty, carrying only shadows?
No, my soul is not asleep.
It is awake, wide awake.
It neither sleeps nor dreams, but watches,
its eyes wide open
far-off things, and listens
at the shores of the great silence.

~From The Soul Is Here For Its Own Joy, Edited by Robert Bly
(HarperCollins Publishers, 1995)