It's said that every species in the world
displays one gift beyond the scope of Man;
how dangerous the skies - to men and birds -
how soiled the air, if wings were in Man's span!
Suppose that every species made extinct
by Man - God's 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, God's there to find.
Michael Shepherd
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/0379-species-sonnet-190/
