The Cottage

The rotting beams were not rot proof

But crumbled in the hand.

The tiles were shattered on the roof,

Distinctly so when scanned.

Now, instead of a bare wall

Through which one cannot see at all,

One communes with the world outside,

And views nature in its stride.

Where peace and silence do abide,

And nature has been sorely tried –

Now places that were fluffed with dust

Wear a fresher look we trust.

The wilderness is cleared from weeds –

Where happiness, content now breeds.

The whole place once beset by rust

Now wears a fresher look I trust.

No light could enter the small room,

The whole place was beset by gloom –

Now that the bars have been removed

The whole room is enlightened, soothed.

Where there were struts like prison bars,

Which the whole place plainly mars,

Now enter in the space and light

Floods in, and there’s a prospect bright

Of earth, of nature, sky and sea

And mountain with due symmetry.

The Aftermath

Stripped naked of pretension, this place

Has returned to Nature – no disgrace

To bird or animal – for man’s edifices crumble

Beneath the bombs and teach him to be humble.

But life endures and reproduces itself again

Through all the dust, dishevelment and pain,

For God restores it all.

Coming on again

The flowers besiege with perfume

Crumbled rubble, spreading their influence

Where man has burst his bubble.

Seeds sprouting in blasted crevices

Show anew God’s healing power,

Which saves earth from oblivion, hour by hour.

Where man has built his palaces of sorts,

Nature re-establishing herself resorts

To grass and thistle, shamrock and briar rose.

Where man’s actions were violent, new repose

Asserts its claim.

The naked shells

Of houses where no living being dwells

Mock at eternity,

And sightless eyes of windows without panes

Gape idiot-like at the retreating planes,

And the muttered stutter of machine-gun fire

Provides a mechanical requiem

For a funeral pyre.

A deathly silence follows and then

Over this scene of destruction there flows

The unlikely song of a bird

In thrilling, flowing notes,

And this place destroyed by man

Is redeemed by God,

Who sets His earth alive again.

Everything man can do has been revealed –

Now God, through Nature, takes a turn,

And life’s repealed.