Weather Note

The snow has gone,
But the naked tree
Has yet no bird
For us to see:

Against the sky
The tree stands tall,
Wanting a bird,
Shapely and small,

To break the lean
Black bough austere, –
And break the frozen
Silence, here,

With a spring note,
Startling as thunder,
On ears awaiting
That first wonder.

— David Morton
From his book "Angle of Earth and Sky," 1941.

Photo by Dan Hardison
Wilmington, North Carolina

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In Assisi

These are the airs wherein he stood
And spoke the unrecorded words
That brought them fearless from the wood,
The timid hare, the settling birds,

That gathered round him in the sun,
Upon his shoulder, at his feet,
In easy friendliness with one
Whose language was their own and sweet

With syllables to quiet fear
And win the wild heart to his own . . .
Let us be still and listen, here,
And learn if any word or tone

May linger in the folds of air
So to instruct the heart and tongue,
That going hence, we go to bear
Love's language as a song were sung.

— David Morton
From his book "Angel of Earth and Sky".

Photo by Dan Hardison
St. James Parish
Wilmington, North Carolina

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