Fathoming the Measure: Gus Stevens

Photo by Derek Rubino, used with permission.

For I could estimate the grains of sand
carried by this colored river year by year
as it carves from the stone this canyon grand

But such reckoning is but a cashier's
math yielding a number I cannot know
for in my mind the zeros disappear.

Nor can I figure a new fallen snow
except through means and volume, heights and weight
I name the number, but the value, no.

I understand that some can calculate
the distance between stars but the pleasure
of that endless sky no mortal tongue can state.

We play at sums but fathom not the measure;
let me not count the coin and lose the treasure.