it is so easy to drift down to sleep
when the weak body lacking all defence
is at a moment when matters are tense
just eager to collapse into the deep
comfort of the dark hardest thoughts will keep
until winter sun makes some vague pretense
at warming earth but we have little sense
of whether honest hearts may make the leap
into the morning now we have some hope
that better judgment will be after night
and waking eyes will look on clearer choice
that at the least each will know how to cope
in what will be a keener form of light
and in a place where each will have a voice

so we are clear that in the winter sun
beneath the cloudless sky when all is cold
though all is bright our hearts are not consoled
by any knowledge the good times are done
while an uncertain epoch has begun
when the best folk are not doomed to be old
when crab his kingdom has now been foretold
so that the countdown clock is on its run
we seldom grieve the brightness of the day
until we see the stars in the night sky
and then declare the sunlight was too brief
for all we had to do or had to say
yet know the while that our words are a lie
to cover up a monumental grief

when eyes look up there is no blue to spy
but clouds of blemished dark and ***** grey
no sign of laughing sun of yesterday
the joyful world of summer seems a lie
told by sad fools each eager to deny
the horrid truth that beauties never stay
while we're the victims in this tragic play
who quail and shiver under lowering sky
still there's an answer as the night returns
and deeper darkness holds us closer in
we're not yet trapped by walls nor iron bars
the cold is met by all the force that burns
from hopeful hearts that still ache to begin
and wisdom that will reach up to the stars

each word is chosen that the whole may sing
in clearest harmony with measure fair
so that past winter we may see new spring

we early learn the value that we'll bring
to the fresh task our hopes are more than air
each word is chosen that the whole may sing

of coming magics and the truths that cling
to every heart in times of hard despair
so that past winter we may see new spring

throw out green shoots and let new branches swing
on the young trees light will once more be clear
each word is chosen that the whole may sing

in tones that reach the bird on highest wing
of better life and times in good repair
so that past winter we may see new spring

and spirits lightened all our hearts shall ring
with jubilation at relief of care
each word is chosen that the whole may sing
so that past winter we may see new spring

across the gully is another place
a different world with silver roughbarked trees
where stubborn beasts resist you on their knees
while walls and fences leave a proper trace
for those bewildered nature shows her face
in complicated motions that each sees
in the raw colours and the harsh decrees
that come upon us with the morning's grace
so this is recollection of the sight
from high above broad river as the grey
of false dawn marks the ending of the night
but here and now the moment cannot stay
we've paid hard cash for all that we have lost
and got no credit for the hills we've crossed

if knowledge is the end that each must seek
through all the tangled forest of the text
it is no wonder that we are so vexed
on the occasion of a sharp critique
delivered in plain words only the meek
affect to listen though they are perplexed
since they have no real sense of what comes next
and no desire to let their hurt minds speak
while up above the hunter is alert
to every nuance of the changing breeze
eager to know what comes in scent or sight
since that one thing may help or may yet hurt
but either way must fall before it flees
and be dragged out into the open light