So Much Lost - The Arab World Poem by Keith Shorrocks Johnson

In the beginning the word made man
Keening for Eden where it all began -
Bargain a son for a better life
But bleed the ram in sacrifice.

Forsaking hunts and herds and skins
For riverside cities where science begins
Growing corn to the water's edge
Finding a founder in rush and sedge

Tablets and marks in mud as token
Pictures to sign where words are broken
Back from the desert the prophet utters
What scribes from Byblos seal in letters.

All revealed and then recorded
The covenant that God awarded
All concealed and then discarded
It only heals the broken-hearted.

So many cities but so much lost
So many pyres where books are tossed
So empires rise and empires fall
Divine the writing on the wall.

…

So many cities but so much lost
So many pyres where books are tossed
So empires rise and empires fall
Writing must weigh and measure all.