I have walked through many lives, 
some of them my own, 
and I am not who I was, 
though some principle of being 
abides, from which I struggle not to stray. 
When I look behind, 
as I am compelled to look 
before I can gather strength 
to proceed on my journey, 
I see the milestones dwindling 
toward the horizon 
and the slow fires trailing 
from the abandoned camp-sites, 
over which scavenger angels 
wheel on heavy wings. 
Oh, I have made myself a tribe 
out of my true affections, 
and my tribe is scattered! 
How shall the heart be reconciled 
to its feast of losses? 
In a rising wind 
the manic dust of my friends, 
those who fell along the way, 
bitterly stings my face. 
yet I turn, I turn, 
exulting somewhat, 
with my will intact to go 
wherever I need to go, 
and every stone on the road 
precious to me. 
In my darkest night, 
when the moon was covered 
and I roamed through wreckage, 
a nimbus-clouded voice 
directed me: 
"Live in the layers, 
not on the litter." 
Though I lack the art 
to decipher it, 
no doubt the next chapter 
in my book of transformations 
is already written, 
I am not done with my changes.
Stanley Kunitz