[SaintRidley]

Prompt: Old Landscape

Site Unseen

Spoiler

The is that was will never be
Seen by one with youthful eye.
That world is dead and lives in memory.

Where once there stood great mountains high,
We have by human hand the land brought low,
Seen by one with youthful eye.

And down those slopes the river’s flow,
Once free, now rages on the dam—
We have by human hand the land brought low.

Modernity—that great old sham,
That worst of works—befell humanity
(Once free) now rages on the dam.

The organic world’s calamity,
The interloper: so called DEATH,
That worst of works, befell humanity.

He took the world’s last natural breath,
The interloper, so-called DEATH.
The is that was will never be.
That world is dead and lives in memory.

Spoiler

Yes, the title is intentional. It's a pun, not an eggcorn.