Page:More songs by the fighting men, soldier poets, second series, 1917.djvu/55

 GEOFFREY H. CRUMP

God

WENT alone into the fields to-night,

And stood upon the hillside, where the oaks

Have stood and talked of God in the twilight

For centuries, and cracked their ancient jokes

Over our heads; those veterans know more

Of God than we have learned with all our lore.

I pressed my cheek against an oak's rough bark,

And watched the sun drop down behind the hill;

Silence fell on the valley; the last lark

Was hushed; and suddenly the wind was still. ..

A breath of air went rustling through the trees,

And God passed by me in the sunset breeze.

A clock chimed in the valley down below;

Some children shouted; and the blue smoke curled

Out of the cottage chimneys—'twas as though

There could be nothing ugly in the world;

The lights gleamed from the houses in the wood;

And God smiled, for He saw that it was good.

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