Bill Knott's "Peace (Pascal)"/Making Peace with Desire

I happened to find this poem on Bill Knott's Blog, part of a selection of political poems that he posted there. The poem may be referencing Pascal's Wager, which suggests that one should wager that there is a God, because life lived under the presumption that there is a God would to a good, peaceful ethical life--even if God is an illusion. If God is not, then you could go to hell for eternity.

The poem seems to struggle with the longstanding human problematic of desire--read a certain way, the Bible is one long lesson in the complications of human desire. How does a poetry of peace make peace with the restlessness, the cupiditas, at the core of human being?

PEACE (PASCAL) by Bill Knott

There is a valley
Is the oldest story.

Its temperate qualities
Make us descend the trees
To settle down beside
Fruits and fields.

By its river content
To sit quietly in a small tent
To fashion fishing spears
From fallen limbs.

No need to climb its hills
No need to go up there
To look to see
Another valley.