I visited the place where we last met. <br />Nothing was changed, the gardens were well-tended, <br />The fountains sprayed their usual steady jet; <br />There was no sign that anything had ended <br />And nothing to instruct me to forget. <br /> <br />The thoughtless birds that shook out of the trees, <br />Singing an ecstasy I could not share, <br />Played cunning in my thoughts. Surely in these <br />Pleasures there could not be a pain to bear <br />Or any discord shake the level breeze. <br /> <br />It was because the place was just the same <br />That made your absence seem a savage force, <br />For under all the gentleness there came <br />An earthquake tremor: Fountain, birds and grass <br />Were shaken by my thinking of your name.<br /><br />Elizabeth Jennings<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/absence/
