Elements

Called it the light of being,
The congery of elements
Has something to do with it: earth,
Fire, water, air --
"Call it by what it does."

The thing that stands and joins them
Is and holds the revelation. But
Is it? Are these?

The ground on which we stand,
The force that cooks our food,
Bringing us to warmth, the medium
In which we move, breathe,
The boundary of the continent
It holds and it divides
Which keeps it too -- this is the stuff
Of which the world's made.

So the Greeks. But is it? Now
What do we know? Are there only four?

"Everything is the same.
The world is the circling
Circle of its times
Compressed into a point,
Equal to itself and nowhere
Closer than it is, one
Without force or division, neither
Static nor restless, no distinction
Keeps the world from its truth."

"The world is the sum
Of moving forces, combinations of distinct
Manifestations, accidentally drawn
Into their necessary forms, which change
Like the day changes, like plants
Change, growing out of itself
Into something it is not."