In these quiet moments
In these quiet moments before the night
Softens the mountains of the South
And deflates the clouds
That float beneath their peaks,
The dying sun’s rich, peach glow
Deepens in the gathering gloom.
There, where the mists stretch
A false horizon between the sea
And the land’s end
Aratika glides across the trackless strait
And winks out beyond Terawhiti.
Taputeranga Island looms up in the bay
Beneath my windows,
Gathering grandeur in the shadows
That blot the features of little wonder,
Commanding the bay in a mysterious night.
It is light, the night has passed in fitful sleep
And the dawn greets the gulls cry
As they circle a softer countenanced island,
The fishing boats point into the wind
That crawls a trance-like, ripple-pattern
Across the bay.
The day begins a pastel glow
Behind the Heads, and spreads
Its cloudless scan to the mountains
Which stand impassively guarding the Strait.
Related poetry:
- It was a quiet way It was a quiet way He asked if I was his I made no answer of the Tongue But answer of the Eyes And then He bore me on Before this mortal noise With swiftness, as of Chariots And distance, as of Wheels. This World did drop away As Acres from the feet Of one […]...
- The House Was Quiet And The World Was Calm The house was quiet and the world was calm. The reader became the book; and summer night Was like the conscious being of the book. The house was quiet and the world was calm. The words were spoken as if there was no book, Except that the reader leaned above the page, Wanted to lean, […]...
- The Quiet Eye THE ORB I like is not the one That dazzles with its lightning gleam; That dares to look upon the sun, As though it challenged brighter beam. That orb may sparkle, flash, and roll; Its fire may blaze, its shaft may fly; But not for me: I prize the soul That slumbers in a quiet […]...
- Quiet Work One lesson, Nature, let me learn of thee, One lesson which in every wind is blown, One lesson of two duties kept at one Though the loud world proclaim their enmity Of toil unsever’d from tranquility! Of labor, that in lasting fruit outgrows Far noisier schemes, accomplish’d in repose, Too great for haste, too high […]...
- In A Breton Cemetery They sleep well here, These fisher-folk who passed their anxious days In fierce Atlantic ways; And found not there, Beneath the long curled wave, So quiet a grave. And they sleep well, These peasant-folk, who told their lives away, From day to market-day, As one should tell, With patient industry, Some sad old rosary. And […]...
- She went as quiet as the Dew She went as quiet as the Dew From an Accustomed flower. Not like the Dew, did she return At the Accustomed hour! She dropt as softly as a star From out my summer’s Eve Less skillful than Le Verriere It’s sorer to believe!...
- It was a quiet seeming Day It was a quiet seeming Day There was no harm in earth or sky Till with the closing sun There strayed an accidental Red A Strolling Hue, one would have said To westward of the Town But when the Earth began to jar And Houses vanished with a roar And Human Nature hid We comprehended […]...
- Patience has a quiet Outer Patience has a quiet Outer Patience Look within Is an Insect’s futile forces Infinites between ‘Scaping one against the other Fruitlesser to fling Patience is the Smile’s exertion Through the quivering...
- This quiet Dust was Gentleman and Ladies This quiet Dust was Gentleman and Ladies And Lads and Girls Was laughter and ability and Sighing And Frocks and Curls. This Passive Place a Summer’s nimble mansion Where Bloom and Bees Exists an Oriental Circuit Then cease, like these...
- Moments Of Vision That mirror Which makes of men a transparency, Who holds that mirror And bids us such a breast-bare spectacle see Of you and me? That mirror Whose magic penetrates like a dart, Who lifts that mirror And throws our mind back on us, and our heart, Until we start? That mirror Works well in these […]...
- Native Moments NATIVE moments! when you come upon me-Ah you are here now! Give me now libidinous joys only! Give me the drench of my passions! Give me life coarse and rank! To-day, I go consort with nature’s darlings-to-night too; I am for those who believe in loose delights-I share the midnight orgies of young men; I […]...
- This Morning Enter without knocking, hard-working ant. I’m just sitting here mulling over What to do this dark, overcast day? It was a night of the radio turned down low, Fitful sleep, vague, troubling dreams. I woke up lovesick and confused. I thought I heard Estella in the garden singing And some bird answering her, But it […]...
- On such a night, or such a night On such a night, or such a night, Would anybody care If such a little figure Slipped quiet from its chair So quiet Oh how quiet, That nobody might know But that the little figure Rocked softer to and fro On such a dawn, or such a dawn Would anybody sigh That such a little […]...
- My Life had stood a Loaded Gun My Life had stood a Loaded Gun In Corners till a Day The Owner passed identified And carried Me away And now We roam in Sovereign Woods And now We hunt the Doe And every time I speak for Him The Mountains straight reply And do I smile, such cordial light Upon the Valley glow […]...
- A Moments Indulgence I ask for a moment’s indulgence to sit by thy side. The works That I have in hand I will finish afterwards. Away from the sight of thy face my heart knows no rest nor respite, And my work becomes an endless toil in a shoreless sea of toil. Today the summer has come at […]...
- The Soul has Bandaged moments The Soul has Bandaged moments When too appalled to stir She feels some ghastly Fright come up And stop to look at her Salute her with long fingers Caress her freezing hair Sip, Goblin, from the very lips The Lover hovered o’er Unworthy, that a thought so mean Accost a Theme so fair The soul […]...
- Impression – Le Reveillon The sky is laced with fitful red, The circling mists and shadows flee, The dawn is rising from the sea, Like a white lady from her bed. And jagged brazen arrows fall Athwart the feathers of the night, And a long wave of yellow light Breaks silently on tower and hall, And spreading wide across […]...
- On a Prospect of T'ai-shan How is one to describe this king of mountains? Throught the whole of Ch’i and Lu one never loses sight of its greenness. In it the Creator has concentrated All that is numinous and beautiful. Its northern and southern slopes divide the Dawn from the dark. The layered clouds begin at the climber’s heaving chest, […]...
- Smoke Light-winged Smoke, Icarian bird, Melting thy pinions in thy upward flight, Lark without song, and messenger of dawn, Circling above the hamlets as thy nest; Or else, departing dream, and shadowy form Of midnight vision, gathering up thy skirts; By night star-veiling, and by day Darkening the light and blotting out the sun; Go thou […]...
- Waking In March Last night, again, I dreamed My children were back at home, Small boys huddled in their separate beds, And I went from one to the other Listening to their breathing regular, Almost soundless until a white light Hardened against the bedroom wall, The light of Los Angeles burning south Of here, going at last as […]...
- Women’s Rights You cannot rob us of the rights we cherish, Nor turn our thoughts away From the bright picture of a “Woman’s Mission” Our hearts portray. We claim to dwell, in quiet and seclusion, Beneath the household roof, From the great world’s harsh strife, and jarring voices, To stand aloof; Not in a dreamy and inane […]...
- The Isle Of Portland The star-filled seas are smooth tonight From France to England strown; Black towers above Portland light The felon-quarried stone. On yonder island; not to rise, Never to stir forth free, Far from his folk a dead lad lies That once was friends with me. Lie you easy, dream you light, And sleep you fast for […]...
- Security Tomorrow will have an island. Before night I always find it. Then on to the next island. These places hidden in the day separate And come forward if you beckon. But you have to know they are there before they exist. Some time there will be a tomorrow without any island. So far, I haven’t […]...
- Over the Misty Mountains Cold Far over the Misty Mountains cold, To dungeons deep and caverns old, We must away, ere break of day, To seek our pale enchanted gold. The dwarves of yore made mighty spells, While hammers fell like ringing bells, In places deep, where dark things sleep, In hollow halls beneath the fells. For ancient king and […]...
- When Dawn Comes to the City The tired cars go grumbling by, The moaning, groaning cars, And the old milk carts go rumbling by Under the same dull stars. Out of the tenements, cold as stone, Dark figures start for work; I watch them sadly shuffle on, ‘Tis dawn, dawn in New York. But I would be on the island of […]...
- Just Keep Quiet and Nobody Will Notice There is one thing that ought to be taught in all the colleges, Which is that people ought to be taught not to go around always making apologies. I don’t mean the kind of apologies people make when they run over you or borrow five dollars or step on your feet, Because I think that […]...
- Crying to be written Dawn has reached the ridges to the north and a thin Line of light chased the night west; it is the best Time of day for me – a cup of coffee, Benson & Scud Pretending to sleep in their baskets at my feet, I am seated, ready to write knowing the lounge fire Is […]...
- Spring Quiet Gone were but the Winter, Come were but the Spring, I would go to a covert Where the birds sing; Where in the whitethorn Singeth a thrush, And a robin sings In the holly-bush. Full of fresh scents Are the budding boughs Arching high over A cool green house: Full of sweet scents, And whispering […]...
- The Price Of Parting Will they be there for you when you die? Will they hold your hands and cry until you’ve breathed Your last? Is it too much to ask? While love is free In tearful task the price of parting wears A mask of pain which none would feign To gladly greet. Yet love abed with death […]...
- Quiet Night Thoughts Before my bed There is bright moonlight So that it seems Like frost on the ground: Lifting my head I watch the bright moon, Lowering my head I dream that I’m home....
- Sonnet III: Turn to Yon Vale Beneath Turn to yon vale beneath, whose tangled shade Excludes the blazing torch of noon-day light, Where sportive Fawns, and dimpled Loves invite, The bow’r of Pleasure opens to the glade: Lull’d by soft flutes, on leaves of violets laid, There witching beauty greets the ravish’d sight, More gentle than the arbitress of night In all […]...
- An Epitaph upon Husband and Wife TO these whom death again did wed This grave ‘s the second marriage-bed. For though the hand of Fate could force ‘Twixt soul and body a divorce, It could not sever man and wife, Because they both lived but one life. Peace, good reader, do not weep; Peace, the lovers are asleep. They, sweet turtles, […]...
- To A Cat STATELY, kindly, lordly friend, Condescend Here to sit by me, and turn Glorious eyes that smile and burn, Golden eyes, love’s lustrous meed, On the golden page I read. All your wondrous wealth of hair, Dark and fair, Silken-shaggy, soft and bright As the clouds and beams of night, Pays my reverent hand’s caress Back […]...
- Luke Havergal Go to the western gate, Luke Havergal, There where the vines cling crimson on the wall, And in the twilight wait for what will come. The wind will moan, the leaves will whisper some Whisper of her, and strike you as they fall; But go, and if you trust her she will call. Go to […]...
- Between the Dusk of a Summer Night Between the dusk of a summer night And the dawn of a summer day, We caught at a mood as it passed in flight, And we bade it stoop and stay. And what with the dawn of night began With the dusk of day was done; For that is the way of woman and man, […]...
- Bilbo's Last Song (At the Grey Havens) Day is ended, dim my eyes, But journey long before me lies. Farewell, friends! I hear the call. The ship’s beside the stony wall. Foam is white and waves are grey; Beyond the sunset leads my way. Foam is salt, the wind is free; I hear the rising of the sea. Farewell, friends! The sails […]...
- Honors When the column of light on the waters is glassed, As blent in one glow seem the shine and the stream; But wave after wave through the glory has passed, Just catches, and flies as it catches, the beam So honors but mirror on mortals their light; Not the man but the place that he […]...
- Lament (O how all things are far removed) O how all things are far removed And long have passed away. I do believe the star, Whose light my face reflects, Is dead and has been so For many thousand years. I had a vision of a passing boat And heard some voices saying disquieting things. I heard a clock strike in some distant […]...
- Portland views wherever there’s a tear in the fabric Around weymouth – portland appears From abbotsbury hill it’s just a long Thin line humped at one end Closer (from chesil beach) a head-on Massive lump of rock gnashed by the sea If you stand at sandsfoot castle There’s a military feel – an armed guard Of an […]...
- Poor Poet ‘A man should write to please himself,’ He proudly said. Well, see his poems on the shelf, Dusty, unread. When he came to my shop each day, So peaked and cold, I’d sneak one of his books away And say ’twas sold. And then by chance he looked below, And saw a stack Of his […]...