Practising Anthem

A summer wind blows through the open porch,

And, ‘neath the rustling eaves,

A summer light of moonrise, calm and pale,

Shines through a vale of leaves.

The soft gusts bring a scent of summer flowers,

Fresh with the falling dew,

And round the doorway, glimmering white as snow,

The tender petals strew.

Clear through the silence, from a reedy pool

The curlew’s whistle thrills;

A lonely mopoke sorrowfully cries

From the far-folding hills.

O lovely night, and yet so sad and strange!

My fingers touch the key;

And down the empty church my Christmas song

Goes ringing, glad and free.

Each sweet note knocks at dreaming memory’s door,

And memory wakes in pain;

The spectral faces she had turn’d away

Come crowding in again.

The air seems full of music all around-

I know not what I hear,

The multitudinous echoes of the past,

Or these few voices near.

Ah me! the dim aisle vaguely widens out,

I see me stand therein;

A glory of grey sculpture takes the light

A winter morn brings in.

No more I smell the fragrant jessamine flowers

That flake a moonlit floor;

The rustling night-breeze and the open porch

I hear and see no more.

Great solemn windows, down a long, long nave

Their shadow’d rainbows fling;

Dark Purbeck shafts, with hoary capitals,

In carven archways spring.

And overhead the throbbing organ waves

Roll in one mighty sea,

Bearing the song the herald angels sang

Of Christ’s nativity.

Dear hands touch mine beneath the open book,

Sweet eyes look in my face,-

They smile, they melt in darkness; I am snatch’d

From my familiar place.

The summer night-wind blows upon my tears;

Its flowery scent is pain.

O cold, white day! O noble minster-when

May I come back again!

To hear the angels’ anthem shake the air,

Where never discord jars,-

The Christmas carols in the windy street,

Under the frosty stars;

The dream-like falling from the still, grey skies,

With falling flakes of snow,

Of mellow chimes from old cathedral bells,

Solemn and sweet and slow.

To hear loved footsteps beating time with mine

Along the churchyard path,-

To see that ring of faces once again

Drawn round the blazing hearth.

When may I come? O Lord, when may I go?

Nay, I must wait Thy will.

Give patience, Lord, and in Thine own best way

My hopes and prayers fulfil.

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External links

Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus

Talking Writing Monster’s Page –

Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh

Poems in English 

• Kodja Mustafa Pasha poem – Yahya Kemal Beyatli poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Itri poem – Yahya Kemal Beyatli poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• He comes poem – Yehudah ha-Levi poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• From the morrow poem – Yamabe no Akahito poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• From the bay at Tago poem – Yamabe no Akahito poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Feeling Lazy poem – Yang Wan-Li poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• A love song poem – Yehudah ha-Levi poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Don’t Light The Candles by Yahia Al-Samawy by Anglo File
• The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot by Thomas Stearns Eliot (TS Eliot)
• Émigrés by Anna Barkova by Анна Баркова
• A Sure Sign by Georgi Ladonshchikov by Fledermaus
• Civil War Songs by Poetry In English
• I have outlived my own desires by Alexander Pushkin (Pouchkine) by Александр Пушкин
• In Defense of Santa Claus by Агния (Гетель) Барто (Волова-Блох)
• Winter Apples by Tatiana Gusarova, translated by Fledermaus by Poetry In English
• Такахама Кёси – О, как ночь коротка by Поэзия На Русском
• Такахама Кёси – Неспешно ступает by Поэзия На Русском
• Такахама Кёси – Мох зеленый примят by Поэзия На Русском
• Такахама Кёси – Мимо порта родного by Поэзия На Русском
• Такахама Кёси – Мацумуси пищит by Поэзия На Русском

More external links (open in a new tab):

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Doska or the Board – write anything

Search engines:

Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)

Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.

Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees

Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.

Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.

 

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