Poems by Themis

The Root

The leaves were falling in October

And laughed with hidden fun,

Nudged, reeled and fell, not being sober

From taking too much sun.

They tumbled in a mad gold blunder,

Impatient of their breath,

And being drunk they heard the Wonder

Singing beyond their death.

And being dead they heard below them

The running, feeding wine,

And deeper yet where mad ones know them,

They saw the root-hearts shine;

Where held and nursed through all Octobers,

Live flower and leaf and fruit,

Bright suns which warm, dark earth which sobers,

In silence of the Root.

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