Places

Places I love come back to me like music,
     Hush me and heal me when I am very tired;
I see the oak woods at Saxton's flaming
     In a flare of crimson by the frost newly fired;
And I am thirsty for the spring in the valley
     As for a kiss ungiven and long desired.

I know a bright world of snowy hills at Boonton,
     A blue and white dazzling light on everything one sees,
The ice-covered branches of the hemlocks sparkle
     Bending low and tinkling in the sharp thin breeze,
And iridescent crystals fall and crackle on the snow-crust
     With the winter sun drawing cold blue shadows from the trees.

Violet now, in veil on veil of evening
     The hills across from Cromwell grow dreamy and far;
A wood-thrush is singing soft as a viol
     In the heart of the hollow where the dark pools are;
The primrose has opened her pale yellow flowers
     And heaven is lighting star after star.

Places I love come back to me like music --
     Mid-ocean, midnight, the waves buzz drowsily;
In the ship's deep churning the eerie phosphorescence
     Is like the souls of people who were drowned at sea,
And I can hear a man's voice, speaking, hushed, insistent,
     At midnight, in mid-ocean, hour on hour to me.