Forgotten Ground Regained
Giants' Work
Originally published in Withowinde 118, p. 21, Summer, 1999
Bridges which cannot ‧ be built anew –Between us and ‧ better old smithsof storied fame – stone-built were they!They lie broken ‧ by brimming torrentsOf water and time. Once towering craftRaised long before ‧ this land we reached,When giants walked ‧ and worked to buildThat which we now ‧ by work and sweatCannot in stone ‧ craft and raise again.What height the man ‧ who hefted that loador the ston span? How strong the armswhich strove to raise ‧ weighty stern grey piers?We work in wood ‧ and well is shapedOur wrights’ pine work, but the work is man’s,Not the giants past, who played with stone.Not halls of wood ‧ nor earthen floorsWere giants’ dwellings ‧ for them deemed fine.We pass the ruins ‧ of pared soft stoneat day’s ending. We dare not stop.The ghosts of giants ‧ may grimly haunttheir crumbling home ‧ when comes the night.Maybe they scan ‧ the stone worked layof pictured tale ‧ told in dull shardswhich once were bright ‧ colored bits of stone.The wolf wanders ‧ the well-laid floorWhich now is smashed ‧ by whirling flails:In daylight’s bravery ‧ we beat our corn.Store of giant’s thoght ‧ our threshing floor.Our work is to ‧ winnow and sow,not wonder and ‧ weaken and thusto feebly starve, staring at wonderswhich we cannot ‧ work in our time.When stern Woden ‧ wants us to think,Until Ing is served ‧ under our ploughsour wondrous work ‧ will be the furrow!And our speech ‧ our storied fame.
Copyright © Brian Wright 1999
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