declare namespace fun = 'have.more.fun'; declare function fun:closure($input as node()*, $result as node()*) as node()* { let $current := $input/parlist/listitem/parlist/listitem let $new := $current except $result let $all := ($result,$new) return if(exists($new)) then ($new, fun:closure($new,$all)) else () }; doc()//listitem[text/keyword or fun:closure(.,())/text/keyword]/text/keyword