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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SONGS FOR A WINTER FIRE: 4. COUNTRY NIGHT by CALE YOUNG RICE

First Line: OF COURSE THERE'S A TREE TO LISTEN TO
Last Line: AND THAT IS A THOUSAND PITIES.
Subject(s): COUNTRY LIFE; NIGHT; SOUND; BEDTIME;

Of course there's a tree to listen to,
And stars if you can hear them,
And cattle breathing in the byre,
And an ash falling from the fire.
But what I mostly turn in bed
To hear is the early wheat,
Growing in the north meadow
Under the late sleet.

It isn't so much what it says
I listen to -- not that;
But just to the sound of growing
Without thinking or knowing.
Of course something must tell it how,
But I have lived in cities
Too long to know what does --
And that is a thousand pities.



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