Prospects – Anthony Hecht

✨ We have set out from here for the sublime

Pastures of summer shade and mountain stream;

I have no doubt we shall arrive on time.

Is all the green of that enameled prime

A snapshot recollection or a dream?

We have set out from here for the sublime ✨

Without provisions, without one thin dime,

And yet, for all our clumsiness,

I deem

It certain that we shall arrive on time.✨

No guidebook tells you if you’ll have to climb Or swim.✨

However foolish we may seem,

We have set out from here for the sublime ✨

And must get past the scene of an old crime

Before we falter and run out of steam,✨

Riddled by doubt that we’ll arrive on time.

Yet even in winter a pale paradigm

Of birdsong utters its obsessive theme.✨

We have set out from here for the sublime;

I have no doubt we shall arrive on time.✨