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Whatever sentence will bear to be read twice, we may be sure was thought twice. - Henry David Thoreau

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        YOUTH

A whip cracks in the wood, and cattle low
And through the underbrush are heard to
Crash heavily. Leaves rustle. Snowdrops show
Their blue heads here and there. A sudden, furtive

Wind starts to blow, and ashen clouds are swept
Across the skies, a cool, fresh rain presaging...
The heart grieves and is glad that life is, strangely,
Vast like the steppe and empty like the steppe.

1916