Early Winter Morning

When i heard at the close of day

how the totals were higher than expected

everyone was pleased but still

it was not a happy night for me that followed,

and else when my plans were accomplished,

still i was not happy,

but when i rose at dawn refreshed

and breathed the morning cool in my lungs,

when i saw the frost sparkling in the moss,

when i heard the crows celebrating light

and heard the rapping of a pileate

calling for a mate on a drumming tree,

when i felt the sun warm upon my face,

i thought of one who thought of me

and knew my friend was coming back,

that night I was happy.

—with a bow to the Good Gray Poet.