The Bonds of Night

Wild drakes have shed their iridescent dress,

The gold of finches fades before my eyes

And blue-bright days an other-worldliness

Assume as autumn's fires fill the skies.

The seasons of our lives, their varied beats

Must change as well upon the first leaf-fall,

As surging force in stem and branch retreats

To sleep in roots until the spring shall call

From dormant fields and dreaming woodland trees

The first green notes to sound her motived score.

And we shall add our songs to symphonies

That issue from the universal core

Of beauty rising from a world-delight

Whose flaming touch shall shear the bonds of night.