Mediterranean - From the Var

1

Red earth, pale olive, fragmentary vine
Mellow with sun’s decline.
In aftermath of harvest all the days
Are flushed with stillness, lit with almond greys,
And this November afternoon I see
Cypress against the sky so very still.
Upon a narrow strand
Full surges moving to the barren land
Towered with rocks, and on this sudden hill
I pause before the sunset that shall be
In its last hour a psalm
Sped to the journeying heart that seeketh balm.

2

Pale moon, slip of malachite
Above the smoke of the clouds poising
In a green moment that will not last -
And you there, far beyond the furthest roads and sea-paths,
Distiller of the heavens,
One drop of blood in the sky suffusing it:
Sunset, advancing
From this grey weather suddenly.

(1921)