182.62 days

Simple Things (1957)

I turn to simple things,
I incline to simple goodness ……………
From the far off light of eternal stars
flows a stream of tenderness
The sea soughs and engulfs the fire
of a crooked juniper stump.
Through the night, through the night, one and all
sense the rolling of the waves!
To lie in the dew of the grass and to feel
the land alive, fragile.
Listen my friend, to the song of childhood,
homely as a cowbell.
Look, how beautifully the pear tree grows,
The one that father planted,
in the ravaged green garden, in the derelict home…..
Nearby, a late flower
like a single tear of emotion
sways and wilts in the wind.
In Autumn I listen with pleasure
to the sad, mellow whispers of the fields …..
Often weak in the face of temptation
silent, thinking that my love is the love of home,
I think, that my brother’s hair grows gray,
And he has more need of his sister.
I know that the night has it’s own joys,
As simple as the water in a basin,
That mother uses to wash your scratched legs
Before putting you to bed ……………….

I turn to simple things,
I incline to simple goodness ……………
When the pressure of difficult thoughts
Weigh upon me with lead heaviness………………
I walked along with the bright thought of love
As if supported by a rail,
listening to the silent birth of spring,
in a time of bitter doubt.
Listening to the silent birth of spring,
feeding the great tits at the window,
travelling in the pages of books,
patient, thoughtful, quiet.
I am drawing new frontiers,
New boundaries and plains.
I know that it is not possible to turn away
from a cherished, difficult life.

Simple things give me the strength
To ask, to urge, to intercede,
to respond to the calls of unquiet days,
that command what I can do, and need!
I know, that to grow strong
I must hold my breath while the storm screeches.
And yet I love the storm and hold in contempt
The foam thrown back upon the beaches.
And yet I love the highway grit
Although it chafes my legs.
I love the song that grows and resounds
in all the corners of the world.

-Debora Vaarandi



If you liked that, please find out more about her HERE.





.