tombeau
text
I have desired to go
where springs not fail,
to fields where flies no sharp and sided hail
and a few lilies blow.
And I have asked to be
where no storms come,
where the green swell is in the haven's dumb
and out of the swing of the sea.
(Gerard Manley-Hopkins, “Heaven-Haven”)
…the red oblivion of decaying wood
the terrible cobalt of a stormy sky
the biting scarlet of the kinglet's hood
and sharper music I have never heard
than water cutting over ragged stone,
the piteous pleading of the keening bird,
the singing silence when the bird has flown.
(Deakin Dixon, from “Hints of Beauty)