Don’t Look Forward

What could it possibly mean

For Tacitus if the rest

Of the Annals were found now,

Or for Aristotle if—

Or for Sappho if—or for

Any sages or poets

Known for a few works or none

From anywhere in the world

Where writing formed a habit—

What could it mean to writers

Dead for a few thousand years

If texts get rediscovered?

The value’s to the finders.

Any text lost long enough

Is some degree of precious,

But the text’s compositor—

Genius, hack, or bookkeeper—

Had better felt some value

In the act of writing it,

In mere, fine satisfaction

Of artifice or nothing.