It's said that every species in the world
displays one gift beyond the scope of Man.
How dangerous the skies - for men, and birds -
how soiled the air, if wings were in Man's span!
Suppose that every species made extinct
by Man, the guardian of all things that live,
deprived us (as indeed it may..)   by dint
of mindlessness, of something God's mind gives?
I watch the spider, humble in my praise:
self-spinning tightrope walker; engineer;
the knower of all Nature's weathered ways
and bold explorer on the winds that veer:
Nature spares the spider Man's wild mind;
should mind in Nature rest, there's more to find.