Amores

Listening

I LISTEN to the stillness of you,
   My dear, among it all;
I feel your silence touch my words as I talk,
   And take them in thrall.

My words fly off a forge
   The length of a spark;
I see the night-sky easily sip them
   Up in the dark.

The lark sings loud and glad,
   Yet I am not loth
That silence should take the song and the bird
   And lose them both.

A train goes roaring south,
   The steam-flag flying;
I see the stealthy shadow of silence
   Alongside going.

And off the forge of the world,
   Whirling in the draught of life,
Go sparks of myriad people, filling
   The night with strife.

Yet they never change the darkness
   Or blench it with noise;
Alone on the perfect silence
   The stars are buoys.