“Whoever it was who searched the heavens with a telescope and found no God
would not have found the human mind if he had searched the brain with a microscope.”
— George Santayana (1863 – 1952)
Category Archives: nature
The robe of folden sunshine.
Today was the last day of real warmth;
I was luxuriating in it.
Every year it seems harder to see summer finally go,
in the “Indian Summer” fashion. I was waiting to see
if we might have a warm spell this month,
and here it is. So, here also is the poem I had laid by,
for farewell…
INDIAN SUMMER
I have strayed from silent places,
Where the days are dreaming always;
And fair summer lies a-dying,
Roses withered on her breast.
I have stolen all her beauty,
All her softness, all her sweetness;
In her robe of folden sunshine
I am drest.
I will breathe a mist about me
Lest you see my face too clearly,
Lest you follow me too boldly
I will silence every song.
Through the haze and through the silence
You will know that I am passing;
When you break the spell that holds you,
I am gone!
-Isabel Ecclestone Mackay
By the north wind was I torn.
IMITATION
Wandering from the parent bough,
Little, trembling leaf,
Whither goest thou?
‘From the beech, where I was born,
By the north wind was I torn.
Him I follow in his flight,
Over mountain, over vale,
From the forest to the plain,
Up the hill, and down again.
With him ever on the way:
More than that, I cannot say.
Where I go, must all things go,
Gentle, simple, high and low:
Leaves of laurel, leaves of rose;
Whither, heaven only knows!’
-Count Giacomo Leopardi, (1798 – 1837) Italy
Apples sweeten in the dark.
THE MOMENT
A neighbourhood.
At dusk.
Things are getting ready
to happen
out of sight.
Stars and moths.
And rinds slanting around fruit.
But not yet.
One tree is black.
One window is yellow as butter.
A woman leans down to catch a child
who has run into her arms
this moment.
Stars rise.
Moths flutter.
Apples sweeten in the dark.
-Eavan Boland
Gladsome Lights 