Classic Poem

When darkness crept and grew
The hushed wide earth lay still.
I listened; I thought I knew
The vibrance under the hill.
If I were now just dead
I could not make less sound.
I slowly bent my head
Intently to the ground.
I listened again. My feet
Took root within the soil;
Earth grew within me, sweet
In my limbs. I knew the soil
Had claimed my body whole.
I listened. There came no sound
Across the darkening knoll
Or over the matted ground.

I had become a thing
Of earth. My face felt air
As leaves feel winds that bring
A sudden cool. My hair
Was grass, my flesh was sand—
Strange that it happened there
Upon the solid land!
My blood turned water. My bone
Took on the strength of stone.

Mixed with earth and sky,
I bore all things to die.
I caused the twig to sprout
And every flower come out.
Flaming the earth with spring
I made each robin sing,
Then sent the long heat down
Tinging green leaves with brown.
I made the summer old
With singing autumn gold,
And stilled all things that grow,
And covered the world with snow.
When darkness crept and grew
The hushed wide earth lay still.
Being earth, at last I knew
The vibrance under the hill.