A Mighty Big Earth
(Spokane, 4/12/1971)
Sometimes I think this is a mighty big earth,
Hiding from me, as it does, so many of my friends
In places I can't easily go.
Sometimes I think I meet people only for the parting,
So brief is the time in which we become friends.
So now I must go again, breaking from a society I've come to know,
Leaving the roads I know, and the mountains and forests where I've worked.
I'm leaving the familiar places, the interesting places, the beautiful places,
And, most difficult of all, I'm leaving those fine people who've become my friends.
Though, no doubt, there will be new places, new beauty,
New familiarity and new friends,
At the parting, thoughts turn not forwards, but backwards,
And sadden to think that this is a mighty big earth.
Return to My Poems index