Do spiders think? or simply learn
without a thought (well, lucky them)
by observation, as great scientists?
Does Nature do it all without a 'thought',
the spider just some robot, programmed thus?

The spider which the other day
built daring, acrobatic, gossamer bridge
across the path a guy-lined full six feet
so that to reach the gate, I had to genuflect
as if in some most holy church's aisle,

That bridge of San Luis Rey, already doomed
to break - the postman, paper boy, the milk -
I watched while seated in the sun for hours;

and as I watched, grew humbler by the minute;
myself the smaller in respect, the spider greater;
my lunch was cooking; the spider awaited (hers?) :

and we grew closer, in some unknown place in mind.

Today, a small, great miracle
of nature - who may be
beyond miracles; or yet bound in a web of law:

Neatly - thoughtfully? -
the web was now aligned
along the hedge of neighbours and ourselves.

And I was humbled by knowing nothing
worth a spider's web.

Michael Shepherd

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/website-spider-style/