Silence

The golden sunset with its warm hues

Gives way to night with fiery light.

A gentle word, the kindness soothes

The savage heart that rages bright.

Joy and love in the hand of peace,

The life that’s sweet with no mourning.

The fog rolls in through the trees

A mighty cloud for every morning.

A solemn look of grave despair

Knowing you must go from hence.

A tear in the eye, a gaze of care,

Giving up at last to love’s long silence.

1987

Originally published in Days of Future Past, The National Library of Poetry, p. 239, 1989