"Response and Reconciliation"

Life never answers.
It has no ears and doesn't hear us;
it doesn't speak, it has no tongue.
it neither goes nor stays.
we are the ones who speak,
the ones who go,
while we hear from echo to echo, year to year,
our words rolling through a tunnel with no end.
That which we call life
hears itself within us, speaks with our tongues,
and through us, knows itself. 
~ Octavio Paz, from "Response and Reconciliation"