Delphi, Greece, May 16, 2005

Published in the Journal, The Greek and Cypriot Notebook

Approaching the Sacred Spring at Delphi

The years have devoured everything
without nostalgia. Below us, a pine forest
tumbles into a jumble of boulders,
nothing in the heather except a dog
and the slanting sun’s long shadows
across alpine flowers and stones
we choose not to notice as we
rush past to where we’re going,
nowhere really, desolate and derelict,
no longer a thing of beauty wild in its
embroidery, no longer ornate, or
transcendent, or even visible at all.