Stars over chaos

2017 marks the centennial plus ten of the birth of anthropologist and ecologist Loren Eiseley, who's popular writings helped to inspire the environmental movement. The following poem is from his collection "The Lost Notebooks of Loren Eiseley." AGAINST CITIES I have envied the hawk's breast enduring the great heaven; all wild wings and the stubbornness of rock yielding no foothold but to eagles. The serenity of stars over chaos is worthy remembrance and the peace of an old planet forgetting the troubled footsteps of men... I have envied even, at times, the stony security of a snail locked in his narrow house. But I have pondered and not understood earth that endures spoiled cities in preference to white deserts and the stars.