A River Ran Through It

It is amazing to watch a man tame the elements-
Of the world, of other men and of his mind;
however, when I had asked a man in his old age
Of what he had conquered, of his prestige,
He scolded me; reciting that for all the days
he sought to tame Her,
he has only since spent every hour,
with his tempered, knotted palms,
drawing a channel to carry him to Her;
to soon reclaim what She had lent him.