Sweet Song of Life

She sang in breakers, down the waves that foam

and kiss the sand as one by one they die;

between the shores, the lands, the seas she’d roam,

so long before earth’s creatures breathed or sighed.

She sang in caves, at twilight and at dawn,

so sweet and yet so sweetly mournful pure,

and from that song life’s lineaments were drawn,

so birds, and trees, and flowers lined the shore.

In these our days, they say her song is lost,

that she’s far gone, and never to return,

that comforts and machines come with their cost,

and for their sake we’ve left the earth to burn.

But ears that love the waves, the winds, the chimes,

can hear her song, so faintly, in these times.