She Walks in Beauty

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent.

Lord Byron

The Wind

i raged through the land
sweeping before me
fences
leaves
litter
bushes
trees
and the words you whispered
dispersed

in anger i baked the soil,
blasting the grass
into cracks
making pony tracks
from streams
frying, ducks fled to reeds
and wilted weeds
and the words you stated
turned to steam

i stormed on the land
throwing thunder
at dogs and cats
and children
geese rose in flocks
at the sound
echoing through city and town
and the words you uttered
scattered

exhausted
the sky became bright grey
the grass alive
and the trees managed a mere
Mexican wave
and from your cave
your words, small and still,
danced on the breeze
to my ears

Tom Rudge
Devon

Copyright: by application

Heaven Haven

I have desired to go
Where springs not fail,
To fields where flies no sharp and sided hail
And a few lilies blow.

And I have asked to be
Where no storms come,
Where the green swell is in the havens dumb,
And out of the swing of the sea.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

This poem was made into songs in the 1970s by the prog folk band Caedmon and more recently by The Innocence Mission on their album Befriended

I never knew you from the sun

What a time it was,
I was befriended and was a friend
for the longest while. You were here,
and I never knew you from the sun

Snow is on the ground
but this is not my landscape now,
where I find myself without you.
I never knew you from the sun.

Oh I had a friend. I had a friend I loved.
Now I walk for miles
into dark forests of piano songs. I'm lost.

Deep into my sleeves, deep in my sleeves,
pockets down where I always reach,
you are there.
Oh I never knew you from the sun,
never, never knew you from the sun.

The Innocence Mission
from the album Befriended,

Copyright: The Innocence Mission
Reproduced with permission