The Deserted Altar

The Deserted Altar The rude altar stood here before we came into this brooding forest where the oak whispered a legend from a star-dim time when clouds and rivers and the warm winds spoke of the retreat of darkness before the flame of first creation, of the ensuing wrack of deity from stone, the imperious claim across the primitive sky, the zodiac that placed each god powerfully in the dome of spaces perfectly unknown and black. . . The oak, the clouds, and river, no longer speak. The legend counsels silence for the time to come. -Fred Chappell 112 ...