In Time of Peace
Turin; is no quiet in the earth, In the green root of history, or the leaves Bending toward the earth ; In the brown eyes, the lake reflecting Cumulus, cirrus, moving; Or in the water-sky reflecting channels in the ice-pack : In boundless, never-ending action, under, and in, and• over, The sea reflecting, There is no peace.
At Fleurier, in the shadow of the stone-pine, At Langres, in the vineyard, At Macugnaga, There is no peace.
Bruno, in the Campo di Fiori,. burning, Hitler saluting, Jules, remembering the orchard and the dead,
Marcel, rolling. a cigarette, and Guillaume,
Scanning the frontier ridges for deserters or a chamois ; These, • The building of a tower, The meteor falling, The shriek and shuddering of brakes, The anguish in the windscreen, and the growth Bursting, a secret flower ; the. newsboy shouting: These are normal.
There is no quiet in the turning sea, Or under burning stone, or glacier ice ; Under the guns, the summer corn, the Paramount, Deeper than piercing worm or peering drill, The blind earth cogitates, the lava moves : There is no peace, there is no certainty,
There is no quiet but the solid earth : the times —The stonefall and the clamouring and silence—
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