<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr"><span style="caret-color: rgb(72, 72, 72); color: rgb(72, 72, 72); font-family: sans-serif, serif; font-size: 26px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">March 26, 1974</span><div><br></div><div>by Richard Wilbur</div><div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(72, 72, 72); background-color: white;">The air was soft, the ground still cold.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(72, 72, 72);"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: white;">In wet dull pastures where I strolled<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: white;">Was something I could not believe.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: white;">Dead grass appeared to slide and heave,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: white;">Though still too frozen-flat to stir,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: white;">And rocks to twitch, and all to blur.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: white;">What was this rippling of the land?<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: white;">Was matter getting out of hand<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: white;">And making free with natural law?<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: white;">I stopped and blinked, and then I saw<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: white;">A fact as eerie as a dream.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: white;">There was a subtle flood of stream<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: white;">Moving upon the face of things.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: white;">It came from standing pools and springs<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: white;">And what of snow was still around;<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: white;">It came of winter's giving ground<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: white;">So that the freeze was coming out,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: white;">As when a set mind, blessed by doubt,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: white;">Relaxes into mother-wit.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="background-color: white;">Flowers, I said, will come of it.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><br></div>—————————————————<br><br><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">http://www.MoscowCares.net</span></div><div><br></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><br></div><div>“A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met.”</div><div>- Roy E. Stolworthy</div><div></div></div></div></body></html>