Wilderness

'Neath stony pillars twilight world takes form;
Within, the flitting shadows tease the eye;
While secrets here are known unto the worm,
Alas, for man! No truth can he espy;

He long ago abandoned prairie snow,
For comfort lent by sad Prometheus;
To nighttime lantern canis lupus lows,
Let lonesome song awake man's spirit thus:

Contend again with claw and fang and tusk!
Recall the yen instilled by springtime flood!
These feeble campfires failing in the dusk
Must amplify the calling in his blood;

As mankind's works succumb to earth's duress,
Beyond the threshold lies the wilderness;