each light a memory, all of the darkness memory

Rain over a continent, the train 

From Washington to Washington plunged

In the sowing rain. He slept with

His nurse on the voyage, she was

Marked with transcontinental love,

She was his all-guessing heart when he died.

Raise the blind, he asked. Under

The rain the continent wheeled, his own land

Electric and blind, farmlights and cities'

Blazes—points, clusters, and chains—

Each light a memory, all of the darkness memory.

 

[Galway Kinnell {1927-2014} 'Rain over a Continent', from Collected Poems]