In the Cool

 "Life is eating us up. We shall be fables presently. Keep cool: It will be all one hundred years hence." -Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

 Excerpts from : In the Cool of the Evening by Alfred Noyes (1880-1958) English poet and playwright, he was born a couple of years before Emerson died. Noyes was nominated for a Nobel Prize in literature. He's known well for his poem The Highwayman, with its  rhyhmical line " riding, riding to the old inn door....". In high school we  imagined we were the highwayman with his bunch of lace at his chin..... I love classic poetry.  So romantic. Tragic. Not so tragic. Then tragic again.  Or poignant. Gentle. Kind. Not so kind. Surprising. Like this one....

 In the cool of the evening, when the low sweet whispers waken

 And the weary have their will

 Is it but the wind that cometh o'er the far green hill?

 Tis but the sunset  winds that wander through the heather.

 Rustle all the meadow grass

 Tis but the winds that bow the reeds in prayer together.

 In the Garden that He loveth

 His lovely vesture with the darkness of a name...

 But the wind that moveth

 The miracle is the same.

 In the cool of the evening, when the sky is an old story

 And loved with passion still

 Hush! the fringe of His garment, in the fading golden glory,

 Softly rustling as he cometh o'er the far green hill.

 In the Cool of the Evening by Alfred Noyes (1880-1958) From "1000 Beautiful Things" compiled by Marjorie Barrow, 1948, Peoples Book Club inc., Chicago.

Photographs: Michelle McConachie Woods 2016