The Record (excerpts)

I know the panic of that wish to save the vital knowledge of the old times,

handed down,

for it is rising off the earth, fraying away

in the wind and the coming day . . .

As you depart

toward the coming light, turn back

and speak, as the creek steps downward

over the rocks, saying the same changing

thing

in the same place as it goes . . .

• Wendell Berry, "The Record"