Nature Poems

Poem of the Week for March 11th 2008

Before the Dawn

One morning, at about 4.00 a.m., after I had, as Olaf Stapleton would say, “tasted bitterness”, I was furiously and despondently walking the dark streets of Hampstead in North London when the somewhat ghostly silence was suddenly pierced by a pure stream of bird song. The purity and beauty piercing the dark, transformed my mood, lightened my step, raised a question, and inspired this poem.

Before the Dawn

How do you know, beckoning ghost in your
dark tree?
The candle power of the dotted stars is not
measurably less;
the ruddled London clouds have not
changed hue ....

And Why do you sing, well timed, to
lessening emptiness,
knowing that soon the day will shine
on me
and that the growing brightness will
diminish you?