The Arid Land
There will be willows plunging
Their bloodless roots in air 
And the hard crooked flying 
Of buzzards circled there.
About the treeless wastes
No sand may ever heap 
With water, nothing will run 
And nothing creep. 
Arid, desolate, defiant 
Under its iron band 
Of sky, we yet may love 
This so sunny land. 
This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on November 5, 2023, by the Academy of American Poets.
