If we go back, if we walk into the old darkness. 
And find Washington brooding under the long bridges,
We will find the dead still ablaze in the anguish of the egg,

The long waves boom in the naked Norwegian caves, 
Men with gray hair come, men 
Like Polynesians, their long hair is like bark falling from a waterfall, 

Bracelets, jade, rubies, teak, silver chain armlets,
Topaz, smoking sapphire, diamond tortoises of gold, 
Columbus glimpsed them behind the green hills before he died;

Sound of thigh bones dancing 
Wakes the West. There,
There are the gold bones, there

Today, autumn.
Heaven’s roots are still.
O holy trees, rejoicing ruin of leaves

I’ve heard the sea upon the troubled rocks
Waste this past night, with dreams more troubled still,
And where the images that you and I

Out of the jetty slip the dark bark rides, 
As I more leave, each day, the man-leafed tree, 
Hearing the Norse tell how they sail the sea.

The dove returns; it found no resting place;
It was in flight all night above the shaken seas;
Beneath ark eaves

It’s a good idea to figure what to do with parents. 
One man I knew, after caring for them for years, 

Whenever Jesus appears at the murky well,
I am there with my five hundred husbands.
It takes Jesus all day to mention their names.