That Lewis might discover No matter where he wandered Virgin universes of conception Many-minded Jefferson commanded 5 Gallatin, Dearborn, Madison, Freneau, and Peale, and Paine, To gather round the table To make his mind serene. Lewis and Clark went nowhere 10 But river forever in That place where shadow meets with shadow, The human mind's wide basin. Each leaf must suffer naming To be ressurrected on the tongue; 15 Adam had that told truth espied And coined no God that whispered lies. That imagination might be exact And range the further therefore Jefferson clapped Lewis' back 20 And sent him over the edge of the world. That the manuscript would not suffer loss Nor the nation diminishment Teen-aged Sacagawea swam across The toiling Missouri to put 25 All that high, wild country Into our countrymen's hearts for good. Quietly list soft reeds against High cheeks a drunken Lewis kissed. Lewis and Clark went nowhere 30 But river forever in That place where shadow meets with shadow, The human mind's wide basin. Who knows how that man who hated All the common parade of men 35 And could not drive to Washington To be feted or hated there, And had paddled far, absent ways Into wilderness's invisible haze Was by beauty's arrow riven, 40 That hatred-driven, star-wandering man? Who knows but that when he shot In clear distillation of his thought His muddied heart upon a ruined cot And into uncharted silence slipped, 45 Sick of all that sickened lot, he yet Inhaled a clipped Pacific air And set his mind upon blank skies High upon Camp Fortunate? Lewis and Clark went nowhere 50 But river forever in That place where shadow meets with shadow, The human mind's wide basin.
From the collection "Divine Revolt"
Written by Gregg Glory [Gregg G. Brown]
More information available on gregglory.com.