3am is so unkind
to a lonely longing mind

Before going to bed
After a fall of snow
I look out on the field
Shining there in the moonlight
So calm, untouched and white
Snow silence fills my head
After I leave the window.

Hours later near dawn
When I look down again
The whole landscape has changed
The perfect surface gone
Criss-crossed and written on
Where the wild creatures ranged
While the moon rose and shone.

Why did my dog not bark?
Why did I hear no sound
There on the snow-locked ground
In the tumultuous dark?

How much can come, how much can go
When the December moon is bright,
What worlds of play we'll never know
Sleeping away the cold white night
After a fall of snow.

Here is a glass of water from my well.
It tastes of rock and root and earth and rain;
It is the best I have, my only spell,
And it is cold, and better than champagne.
Perhaps someone will pass this house one day
To drink, and be restored, and go his way,
Someone in dark confusion as I was
When I drank down cold water in a glass,
Drank a transparent health to keep me sane,
After the bitter mood had gone again.

Hello, sweet dream
I am calling
Falling as the sun in autumn
Here I'm standing
Softly handling
Things that fall all the way straight to the bottom
Watching, waiting
Contemplating
Brain just straining to figure out why
Alone, silent
Wrestling, violent
With words from my mouth that float to the sky
Catch them, write down
Things that I've found
Float on the sounds of my thinking
Don't say adieu
Company, I've found you
In these words, the little inklings