| BRITISH COLUMBIA ARTISTS |
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This poem was written by Grace Melvin,
on June 8, 1939. It is from one of a folio of original issues of The Savary
Pudding, a broadside created by Vancouver School of Art
summer students on Savary Island.
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Gray and damp are the woods at night - So cold So heavy To bear alone. Trees grown so tall Their rustling Ousts the sky And the birds in their branches Seem far away - They call From another world - Wheet - Wheet - Wheet - hees - ssss - Twit - twit hoot - Gray and damp are the woods at night And the dead leaves rustle underfoot. The salt air drags heavily in the nostrils Sweet and pungent With dew and rain There is a tremble Of falling darkness - Silencing laughter And the raucous notes of day. Soft is the light In the gray woods at night Soft are the sounds And the whispers of the wild things. Soft is the moss And the leaves Underfoot Soft with reverence For dead things passing. Day must die. One pulse breathes the rhythm Of the gray woods At night-fall One pulse - And one beat - Tread softly now - lest you waken the wild things In the gray damp woods at night. |