Poems (Forrest)/Ringbarked timber
RINGBARKED TIMBER
In sunny days how fully they confess
With pale arms, lifted to skies desolate,
The abject penance of their nakedness,
That shows the world the sorrow of their state.
With pale arms, lifted to skies desolate,
The abject penance of their nakedness,
That shows the world the sorrow of their state.
On moonlit nights they rise, bone-stark and white,
Beneath that cold and starry diadem;
But in the kindness of the moonless night
Forgotten leaves come rustling back to them.
Beneath that cold and starry diadem;
But in the kindness of the moonless night
Forgotten leaves come rustling back to them.
If you should stand beside the paddock gate,
Still as a post yourself, nor move, nor speak:
A touch that is no more than feather-weight
Will lightly brush, in passing, on your cheek.
Still as a post yourself, nor move, nor speak:
A touch that is no more than feather-weight
Will lightly brush, in passing, on your cheek.
Maybe you name it as a twilight moth,
Losing direction where the cloud-world heaves;
But out of summer's folded cerecloth
Back to the ringbarked trees have come the leaves!
Losing direction where the cloud-world heaves;
But out of summer's folded cerecloth
Back to the ringbarked trees have come the leaves!
Could you not smell the gum-tang drifting past?
Could you not feel the warmth of blossoming?
Did you not sense how gallantly was cast
About that bitter need, the cloak of spring?
Could you not feel the warmth of blossoming?
Did you not sense how gallantly was cast
About that bitter need, the cloak of spring?
Into the dead wood rose the winey sap;
Twigs on the bitten branch came thick and fast;
And Youth was cuddled in the grey earth's lap,
And barrenness was quick with life at last!
Twigs on the bitten branch came thick and fast;
And Youth was cuddled in the grey earth's lap,
And barrenness was quick with life at last!
When the dawn winds, across the sapling track,
Whisper a warning, and a whistling bird
Calls to the dreams to lift their pedlar's pack:
Once more the flitting of the leaves is heard.
Whisper a warning, and a whistling bird
Calls to the dreams to lift their pedlar's pack:
Once more the flitting of the leaves is heard.
And when the gold sun breaks along the East,
Faintly it flushes, where the lonely boughs
Are stripped again, like spendthrift from a feast,
Beggared to pay for that one night's carouse.
Faintly it flushes, where the lonely boughs
Are stripped again, like spendthrift from a feast,
Beggared to pay for that one night's carouse.
But in the deep dark nights when no moon-sheen
Pricks with fine needles through the brown earth's hem,
Marking white bones where Tragedy has been,
Forgotten leaves come rustling back to them!
Pricks with fine needles through the brown earth's hem,
Marking white bones where Tragedy has been,
Forgotten leaves come rustling back to them!