Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CARRISO GORGE, by BENJAMIN FRANKLIN FIELD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CARRISO GORGE, by                    
First Line: Eastward the wise men sought to find a pass
Last Line: And spun his steel along carriso gorge.
Alternate Author Name(s): Field, Ben
Subject(s): Carrizo Gorge, California; Mountain Passes


Eastward the wise men sought to find a pass
Where steel could lie and stretch its glistening limbs,
Where steam could whistle from its lips of brass
And continental traffic shriek its hymns;

But from the javelined San Diego Bay
Across the chaos of the mountains' girth
There is no place where nature made a way
To reach her empire burgeoned on the earth.

A hundred million boulders piled on high
While over age-dead heights the eagles pass—
God's hands flung down those mountains burnt and dry,
Yet in the cañons' depths grow tufts of grass;

Then came a man whose dream was not forespent—
Where mauve and orange lit the panicled forge
He built a road, hewed out a monument
And spun his steel along Carriso Gorge.








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