Lines Written At Tarn Hows, Cumbria Poem by David Tremain

Placid lake, your lightless face
Betrays no feeling heart nor grace.
What memories in your depths have drowned?
What lonely souls have wandered round
Your shore, and in your watery deep
Poured the secrets which you keep?

Silent pool, the trees all mute
By water's edge. A withered root
Leans out across your silvery skin
And dips a scrawny finger in.
Ripples over your surface spread
Where blackened leaves lie- limp and dead.

Watchful tarn, your mirrored eye
Reflects the mountains standing by.
You swell and shrink but never stir
Nor in your dim reflections err.
You are not moved, you do not care
And in the man reflected there
Within his lightless eyes I see
The same indifference crosses me