I tangle and snare them all

I am the mist, the impalpable mist, 

Back of the thing you seek.
My arms are long,
Long as the reach of time and space.
 

Some toil and toil, believing, 

Looking now and again on my face, 

Catching a vital, olden glory.
 

But no one passes me, 

I tangle and snare them all.
I am the cause of the Sphinx, 

The voiceless, baffled, patient Sphinx.
 

I was at the first of things, 

I will be at the last.
        I am the primal mist
        And no man passes me;
        My long impalpable arms
        Bar them all.

 

[Carl Sandburg {1878-1967} 'The Mist', from Selected Poems]