Visions and Illusions by William Paley

Author:William Paley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Brown Dog Books

The Wind on the Cliff

Water rolls in long, white horses

Hard against the empty coast

Where sandy beaches grasp the reins

To halt the flood’s defiance.

Springy turf on windswept grassland

Lies atop the white cliff’s edge

Where seagulls wheel and cry aloud

Above a languid silence.

The wisps of cloud in vaults above

Meet far and wide horizons

Where waters grey and green

Lay calm beyond the offing.

No sail to see, no ship ahead

No break in peaceful even

But just a tint of red

As sun begins its parting.

A girl aloft there scans the scene,

With none but wind attending

That stirs the deep, provoking thoughts,

Where hair and doubts are streaming.

She stands with robe of deepest blue

With sash of gold encircled

Her future filled with unknown tasks

Beyond the realms of dreaming.

What is this if not the place

To aid her understanding?

There, the deepest depths

And, here, the highest vantage;

In the south, the widest scope,

To northward lie the mountains

And, there between, the empty book

That logs her future voyage.

With gaze intent, she stares ahead

At all her mind portrayed:

A flat expanse of broad extent

And all her soul inviting

Contrasted with a tangled web,

Her every thought confused

But all the sand upon the beach,

A tablet blank for writing.

None is there to be the guide

To whom she could have turned

And therefore must she cast

Her inmost thoughts upon the air.

She seeks the destiny decreed

And whither she is bound

And how she can divine

What unborn days will not declare.

“Will those years that are to come

Flow on in even stream,

Or tumble like the gulls in storms

Until the gales abate?

Will boats that bob at mooring

Now tilting at the flood,

Prepare to challenge open seas

Or gentler breeze await?

“Some furious roar may whip the surf

And angry crests command the waves

To thrust with ceaseless thunder

Around me on my refuge.

Or heaving waters thrash the shore

As billowed walls obscure my view

And gales send seabirds reeling

That flounder in the deluge.

“Darkened skies may resume their smiles

When tempest’s rage is spent

But beat with summer heat

On all the springtime splendour.

For then, will blooms have loved and lost

And treasures fade from sight

To sink in deepest sleep

Beneath the autumn grandeur”.

But zephyrs whisper in her ear

To grasp the life presented

Or weep below the bustling clouds

And never know the sunshine.

“If roaring tumult burst the calm,

Let fate not go unchallenged

But fight against the crashing surge

That batters on the shoreline.

“Deep and silent like the ocean currents

That are flowing uncontrolled by man,

The secret passage of our age

Moves all unseen through hidden veins;

But a constant watch is ever present

As a zealous glass pours forth the sands

To measure mortals for the tomb

Whose lives decline with dwindling grains.

“Those birds will race in careless flight,

And boats will cross the bar

Thrusting through the racing tides

Pursuing new adventure.

The rose will wake at dawning light

In homage to the sun

Greeting that horizon blaze

‘Till summer yield to winter.

“Although the flowers that choose to stay

May bid the world to come their way,

They thrive or die in native land

And by the breeze are shaken.

For, all the showers that fate decrees

Descend upon unsheltered soil

Where then subdued lies wildest thought

And hope is left forsaken.

“The world imposes many choices

Except turn back the tide;

And Time has one direction

Assisted by the wind.

We

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