This is the song of rock—
That dreams of the mountain,
That prophesies earth
And the vulnerable human eye—
I am rock and I am all
That remains
Of the Devonian fish.
I am rock and I was old
When Ur fell to Babylonian swords.
My brothers and sisters buried
The almost human apes of Olduvai
And they were already old.
I am rock. I am
Stone.
I have been fiery magma.
I am rock and beneath me
Is darkness.
Oh, I am rock
And fear the rain
And tremble beneath the patient lichen.
(published in The Louisville Review #3, Fall 1977)