Sand-Pipings

1. GULLS

Strong wings in the stormy weather—
Gray stitches that hold
The raveling fabrics of sea and sky
Forever together!

2. STORM’S END

As if engraved upon the dawn,
The sleek gulls stand
Along the rim of an exhausted sea
That rumbles up the sand.

Amazing birds, untired and trim of wing,
Whose round unflinching eyes
` Meet like a challenge the leaden-lidded sun
About to rise.

3. FOR A SPRING DAY

Here is no bud, no blade,
No young green thing;
This stark earth knows a meager spring.

Gulls are the only birds,
And thin their cries,
Bleak winter in their frosty eyes.

Somewhere, are fields and boughs,
A hill, a brook;
I would not lift my head to look

From this wind-shapen dune,
This stern still place,
This sea that stares me in the face,

This unimpeded sun!—
And for my hand,
The fine unfecund yellow sand!