Each line in ​“Vis­i­tors” is a gift for med­i­ta­tion that is acces­si­ble. In the end we arrive at the con­clu­sion that Joan Naviyuk Kane is seek­ing to artic­u­late in sym­bol­ic lan­guage an under­stand­ing of the fleet­ing nature of our brief ​“vis­it” to the earth as humans. The com­ic tragedy is that we are here for a while, and yet we are here for­ev­er when we pass on our rit­u­als of sur­vival to the next gen­er­a­tion. There is, though, a warn­ing at the end of the poem. Often, she says, there are forces — small in spir­it in the face of the grand gen­eros­i­ty of an open door — that seek to bar our entry. We grow weary, and must be wary of such forces.