See.

de Blaas, A Young Woman with Veil (detail), 1909

From my village I see as much of the universe as can be seen

from the earth,

And so my village is as large as any town,

For I am the size of what I see

And not the size of my height . . .

In the cities life is smaller

Than here in my house on top of this hill.

The big buildings of cities lock up the view,

They hide the horizon, pulling our gaze far away from the

open sky.

They make us small, for they take away all the vastness our

eyes can see,

And they make us poor, for our only wealth is seeing.

Fernando Passoa