gradus ad parnassum

each journey's not a problem for the road

but recollection tricks us into tears

each sudden image coming unawares

and  then revealing there's a complex code

that we'd forgotten then time overflowed

into each heart and took away our fears

washed out the sad crustation of the years

displaying all the good that was bestowed

in this refraction what we see is clear

to older heads unbowed by weight of age

whose eyes preserve a proper youthful sight

with memory of that softer mountain air

of solemn words declared on rustic stage

before a passage into tropic light