Not till all human senses
merge with light again.
They were gone for days,
the hunters and fishermen
Challenging the beasts
who claimed the land and the sea.
The young sang their praise
all through the gloried summer
While the women danced
and gave them welcoming feasts.
How their deeds warmed us
winter nights! how bright the blaze!
Now, we are fearful
and cold. We need more old men.
I turned back
the thick, heavy calendar of years
Laboring,
page by century by page of scroll
To restore
the undiscovered new world once more