MORNING 



ENEATH the velvet 

 gloom of sleeping 

 woods there was no 

 sound. Wrapped in 

 the impenetrable 

 canopy of night the 

 flowers and birds 

 lightly dozed through 

 the slow morning 

 hours, until the faint- 

 est trace of paler blue 

 blended upward in an arc above the low. 

 woods on the horizon to the East. 



A bird awoke and sleepily sang its 

 song, while away in the pines a noisy 

 crow proclaimed the awakening hours 

 for his black kindred in hoarse caws 

 that broke harshly on the Morning 

 peace. Gradually the fading blue 

 spread upward and ran around the 

 horizon to North and South. In the 

 centre of the fan of light the blue 

 turned to ash-gray and the gray cloud 

 became streaked with faint, opalescent 

 light at the edges. 



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