Poems of the Week

Persevaliant

by Julia Griffin

“NASA’s Perseverance Rover sends sneak peek of Mars landing”
NASA

“And he, who did not know his name, realized and said his name was Perceval the Welshman,
nor did he know if he spoke the truth or not, but he spoke the truth even if he did not know.”
—Chrétien de Troyes, The Story of the Grail (lines 3573-77)

The place was dolorous. He scanned
A waterless and wasted land
For signs that something once had grown;
The only shadow was his own.
He caught his image, metal-clad,
Proof of a quest too high and mad
For common men. For this he came,
Charged with instructions, and a name
He could not know, but those who knew
Called “Perseverance.” Which was true.