IN A WOOD CLEARING.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18900, 15 January 1927, Page 13

IN A WOOD CLEARING.

. [From The "London Mercuey."] All night I wearied .utterly of the. pillow of'darkness • In hope of the dawn, knowing it should . bring me,.- , In one soft word, 'a joy, that is past understanding. Now "stirs the morning breeze with thoughts of the clover .Bent by the bees, with thoughts of the balsam/trees;. . ..But I go with dreams sweeter by far — with dreams of a maiden Sloping to loveliness up from her finger tips. 'High in the wilderness there is a ■ clearing 1 * ■ "-V''< That gluts itself all day with the sunshine. Here is the rain soonest forgotten; ~, here the slim shadows Of bending trees run in and away again Like children at play. Hero I como this high morning, -■•'••• Robed.in the freshness of dawn, and here I wait , . ' In a delicious confusion, knowing not whether 'Tis my heart that, beats or her step ■ that falls ■...:.,■.; y On the'wood mosses .of gray, green, and ' .silver. And here, splashed:.by the sun, I sit wondering Which shall bend lower the head of rye clover—' The bee or the wind. The transparent dragonflies Hovering, watch ! with me and the birch leaves awlaud; Their green-gloved; fingers joyously clapping. She comes now out of the wood, her. long hair tossing Darkness out ofits tangle. The. woodpecker, thumps ■'.''•''" On the tree to outdistance my heart. Now I know*who taught the willowits grace '■•'■■■■','. And; the flower its abundance of sweetness; now I know" : " Where the curve in the.wind found its pattern. All day we sat in a clearing, under a great tree, t Holding the. leash of the runaway hours in our hands. Sometimes we •. shut our eyes and offered vague guesses Which was the voice of the lake at.our ■ feet And which was the cry of the cool,\ liquid/ poplar—- • That mimic of water. Thus wo were startled by dusk. . Ero wo were quite aware the young 'down had departed. How easily slips night into the forest; it is black wine Into black wine. What n fine tussle with light in' this clearing Bath darkness: proudly.it Rams this place. - It was she who spoko first of. the homogoing; •141. '' Perhaps, in a-woman's .way, just to besure in her heart . That I was reluctant to leave her, so we stayed, Stayed till the bronze moon grew pale from its climbing, Stayed till the nrght was an octoroonlovely to see. The air was so silent that even the whip-poor-wills dared not sing; Nor could we hear aught save the rythmic advance of our hearts And the wash of her hair that fell about me like rain. —WILSON MACDONALIX