A Simpler Time?

Kudos to Frank Wilson for showcasing Edwin Muir, an old Underbelly favorite. Wilson triggered my memory of "The Difficult Land," where, inter alia, Muir says:

And once in a lifetime men from over the border,
In early summer, the season of fresh campaigns,
Come trampling down the corn, and kill our cattle.
These things we know and by good luck or guidance
Either frustrate or, if we must, endure.

Muir's poems appear to be out of print, at least in the U.S. (but here is a UK link)--he survives (along with his wife) as a translator from the German, mainly of Kafka. There is this web collection of the poetry--a respectable sampling but none of my favorites. And make an effort to seek out his extraordinary autobiography, a neglected classic.

But as to the poem. I hadn't read it in a couple of years My current thought: only once in a lifetime? Lucky man.