The descent beckons
as the ascent beckoned
Memory is a kind
of accomplishment
a sort of renewal
even
an initiation, since the spaces it opens are new places
inhabited by hordes
heretofore unrealized,
of new kinds--
since their movements
are towards new objectives
(even though formerly they were abandoned)

No defeat is made up entirely of defeat--since
the world it opens is always a place
formerly
unsuspected. A
world lost,
a world unsuspected
beckons to new places

William Carlos Williams