Sand Of The Desert In An Hour-Glass

A handful of red sand, from the hot clime

  Of Arab deserts brought,

Within this glass becomes the spy of Time,

  The minister of Thought.

How many weary centuries has it been

  About those deserts blown!

How many strange vicissitudes has seen,

  How many histories known!

Camel Caravan

Perhaps the camels of the Ishmaelite

  Trampled and passed it o'er,

When into Egypt from the patriarch's sight

  His favorite son they bore.

Perhaps the feet of Moses, burnt and bare,

  Crushed it beneath their tread;

Or Pharaoh's flashing wheels into the air

  Scattered it as they sped;

Or Mary, with the Christ of Nazareth

  Held close in her caress,

Whose pilgrimage of hope and love and faith

  Illumed the wilderness;

Palm Trees at En Gedi (Engaddi)

Or anchorites beneath Engaddi's palms

  Pacing the Dead Sea beach,

And singing slow their old Armenian psalms

  In half-articulate speech;

Dead Sea Beach

Or caravans, that from Bassora's gate

  With westward steps depart;

Or Mecca's pilgrims, confident of Fate,

  And resolute in heart!

Mecca

These have passed over it, or may have passed!

  Now in this crystal tower

Imprisoned by some curious hand at last,

  It counts the passing hour,

And as I gaze, these narrow walls expand;

  Before my dreamy eye

Stretches the desert with its shifting sand,

  Its unimpeded sky.

And borne aloft by the sustaining blast,

  This little golden thread

Dilates into a column high and vast,

  A form of fear and dread.

And onward, and across the setting sun,

  Across the boundless plain,

The column and its broader shadow run,

  Till thought pursues in vain.

The vision vanishes!  These walls again

  Shut out the lurid sun,

Shut out the hot, immeasurable plain;

  The half-hour's sand is run!

Hourglass Sunset, 2009, Bluesbandit Photo

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I often come back to this poem because it reminds me that no matter where we are, who we are, what we do.... someone has come before us, walked on the path we are on, seen the sights we have seen, tried something we are learning, and made their mark - slight or grand on this world.... All marks on the world matter.... the slightest of marks in the sands of time may one day prove to have the greatest of impact on humanity. ~ Fred