How Much Is Not Lost or Found

Much of what was still is,
But you don’t know it, can’t
Know the least half of it,

And you know this, or should,
Since new old things no one
Knew of show all the time—

The lost bones, the burst star,
The tomb of the least-known
Chief of the least-known folk,

New kinds of lives lived more
Years than your kind’s been here,
And so on, and so forth.

What is is sunk deep in
What has been, which still is,
Which you must know you won’t.