Night Images Poem by Robert Fitzgerald

Late in the cold night wakened, and heard wind,
And lay with eyes closed and silent, knowing
These words how bodiless they are, this darkness
Empty under my roof and the panes rattling
Roughed by wind. And so lay and imagined
Somewhere far off black seas heavy-shouldered
Plunging on sand and the ebb off-streaming and
Thunder forever. So lying bethought me, friend,
What traffic ghouls have, or this be legend,
In low inland hollows of the earth, under
Shade of moon, the night moaning, and bitter frost;
And feared the riches of my bones, long given
Into this earth, should tumble to their hands.
No girl or ghost beside me, and I lonely,
Remembering gardens, lilac scent, or twilight
Descending late in summer on that town,
I lay and found my years departed from me,
And feared the cold bed and the wind, absurdly
Alone with silence and the trick of tears.