John Freeman Poems

Ah, bird singing late in the gloam
While the evening shadow thickens,
And the dizzy bat-wings roam,
And the faint starlight quickens;
...

The wild October sky
Rises not so high,
The tree's roots that creep
Into the earth's body thrust not so deep
...

There is a garden where the seeded stems of thin long grass are bowed
Beneath July's slow rains and heat and tired children's trailing feet;
...

Falls from her heaven the Moon, and stars sink
burning
Into the sea where blackness rims the sea,
...

The noisy fire,
The drumming wind,
The creaking trees,
And all that hum
...

Thy hand my hand,
Thine eyes my eyes,
All of thee
Caught and confused with me:
...

The earth is purple in the evening light,
The grass is graver green.
The gold among the meadows darker glows,
...

Eve goes slowly
Dancing lightly
Clad with shadow up the hills;
Birds their singing
...

Unconscious on thy lap I lay,
A spiritual thing,
Stirless until the yet unlooked-for day
Of human birth
...

When through our bodies our two spirits burn
Escaping, and no more our true eyes turn
Outwards, and no more hands to fond hands yearn;
...