Night

NIGHT keeps all its secrets wellAnd hides with a velvet capeThe questing world of day.

The wind in the poplar trees

stirs the silvered moonlit leaves

And whispers of gentle things.

Hishes meadows and sleeping hills

the trees are in touch with heaven

Under a canopy of quiet

Which stills the restless heart.

Hold back the dawn then,

And let the night stay awhile

before the day awakes and the garish

sun sweeps my dreams away.

Catherine Neale