Classic Poem

Somewhere a fact stands in its place:
It does not stand in the place of some other fact,
It does not dispute any place with any other fact,
It does not spell its name in the biggest letters or call it our loudest,
It just stays where it belongs, it just its law,
It, the fact, the darling daring fact, there in its place.

Somewhere a fact stands in its place:
The nations send their fleets out against it,
The religions send their priests out against it,
The money makers send their pirates out against it,
But after they have all gone and come home,
After they have brought the heaven down to the earth,
After they have lifted the earth up to heaven,
The fact is still in its place, steadfastly doing its part.

Somewhere a fact stands in its place:
It is a tree, it is a mouse, it is anything great or small,
But before it is anything great or small it is a fact:
The primal fact innocent of gladness or woe,
The fact sure of itself and its place,
The fact hoarding no coward laurels,
Always the fact, the fact alone.

Somewhere a fact stands in its place:
The fact, a drop of blood, holding the universe at bay,
The fact, an unspoken love, rejecting the world's assault,
The fact, a purpose, in you deposited, braving flattery and the mob,
The fact in its place, from which no hatred can expel it,
Love the fact in its place attracting all power to itself,
The great cause the fact in its place stemming the world's retreat.

Somewhere a fact stands in its place:
The fact my soul faithful to its native dreams,
The fact my soul making all paths its own,
The fact that burns at the stake and is the fact still,
The fact that you shoot in battle and that comes back to you after the peace,
The fact in its place, the stubborn unsparing fact,
The fact my soul not pausing or hastening its deeds.

Somewhere a fact stands in its place:
The fact myself as much fact as any,
The fact myself to which all other facts converge,
Always when in its place invulnerable,
Always when in its place the sun of the orbited planets,
The fact of all facts to the soul the one fact to respect,
The fact the self rank as earth and clean as a fresh wind,
The fact in its place warning trespassers off.

Somewhere a fact stands in its place:
The fact the self to which the universe reports,
The fact in its place the soul,
The soul in its place the fact.