PATNI TOP RE-VISITED WITHOUT HER
Tranquil, peaceful, calm, in solitude,
Birch and pine and fir trees stand in truce,
And when some vagrant wisps of wind intrude,
They sway and sigh and whisper. I deduce
That mighty storms all wrathful, flashing, rue
Have gnarled majestic trunks of sturdy trees,
And bent them double, made them rough and crude,
Though now they brooding stand in apparent peace.
Love, when I met you first, the woody lanes
Were the same. These everlasting veterans are
Bedecked with beauty of some fitful peace,
And stand in silence bearing aches and pains.
But where are you? Your absence leaves a scar,
What wrinkled, twisted, lifeless woods are these?
