Hour Before Light

IT is so still that I can hear
Breath of a man who dies across the world.
It is so still that I can hear the feet of birds
Light on the quiet waves at sea.
This is the heart’s great midnight hour
After the morning and evening and the noon of sound.
Still, still.
The branch motionless,
The gaunt weed motionless,
The moon unmoving on the quiet waters of the sea.
Silence and silence.
Oh still and ominous hour
Breeding the blind wild tempest of our morning pain!