DO NOT PASS BY...

THE SOLITARY WAFARER by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) 

from "Gitanjali", published in 1913

In the deep shadow of the rain, 

with secret steps,

You walk, silent as night....

                                                           

eluding all watchers.

Today the morning has closed its eyes, heedless of the insistent calls

                                                          

                          of the loud east wind....

...and a thick veil has been drawn

                                                                

                        over the ever wakeful blue sky.

The woodlands have hushed their songs,

                                                             

                          and doors are shut at every house.

You are the solitary wayfarer in this deserted street.

                                                          

oh, my only Friend,

my best Beloved,

                                                               

the gates are open in my house...

                                               Do not pass by......

                                                           

Like a Dream.....

 Photographs 2026. Last two pics from Elk Falls, posted with permission from Morgan W.

Campbell River, B.C.

TRANQUIL SOLITUDE...

REFUGE by Lew Sarett (1888-1954)

When stars ride in on the wings of dusk,

                                                Out of the silent plain,

After the fevered fret of day,

                                     I find my strength again.

Under the million friendly eyes

                               That smile...

in the lonely night...

            Close to the rolling prairie's heart,

Out where the cool long winds blow free,

                                                 I fling myself...

on the sod:

                       And there.....          

                                    in the tranquil solitude

 I find my soul...

                                         ...and God.

Photographs 2026

 Lew Sarett's poems are in the public domain. An American author, outdoorsman, and teacher . Check out some of his writing collections, including: "Many Many Moons 1920", "the Box of God 1922" and 

"Slow Smoke 1925"

FROST...

AN OLD MAN'S WINTER NIGHT (Robert Frost 1874-1963) excerpts

All out of doors looked darkly in at him through the thin frost, 

 almost in separate stars, that gathers on the pane in empty rooms.

What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze 

was the lamp tilted near them in his hand.

And scared the outer night, which has its sounds, familiar, like the roar of trees and crack of branches...

common things.........

Where now he sat, concerned with what he knew what,

A quiet light, and then not even that.

He consigned to the moon, such as she was,

So late-arising, to the broken moon

As better than the sun in any case

For such a charge, his snow upon the roof,

His icicles along the wall to keep;

And slept. The log that shifted with a jolt

Once in the stove, disturbed him and he shifted, and eased his heavy breathing,

but still slept.

One aged man--one man---can't keep a house, a farm, a countryside,

it's thus he does it of a winter night.

Photographs 2026 "An Old Man's Winter Night" first published in 1916 

(Mountain Interval collection) by Robert Frost is in the public domain