The crooked paths go every way <br />Upon the hill - they wind about <br />Through the heather in and out <br />Of the quiet sunniness. <br />And there the goats, day after day, <br />Stray in sunny quietness, <br />Cropping here and cropping there, <br />As they pause and turn and pass, <br />Now a bit of heather spray, <br />Now a mouthful of the grass. <br /> <br />In the deeper sunniness, <br />In the place where nothing stirs, <br />Quietly in quietness, <br />In the quiet of the furze, <br />For a time they come and lie <br />Staring on the roving sky. <br /> <br />If you approach they run away, <br />They leap and stare, away they bound, <br />With a sudden angry sound, <br />To the sunny quietude; <br />Crouching down where nothing stirs <br />In the silence of the furze, <br />Couching down again to brood <br />In the sunny solitude. <br /> <br />If I were as wise as they <br />I would stray apart and brood, <br />I would beat a hidden way <br />Through he quiet heather spray <br />To a sunny solitude; <br />And should you come I'd run away, <br />I would make an angry sound, <br />I would stare and turn and bound <br />To the deeper quietude, <br />To the place where nothing stirs <br />In the silence of the furze. <br /> <br />In that airy quietness <br />I would think as long as they; <br />Through the quiet sunniness <br />I would stray away to brood <br />By a hidden beaten way <br />In a sunny solitude. <br /> <br />I would think until I found <br />Something I can never find, <br />Something lying on the ground, <br />In the bottom of my mind.<br /><br />James Stephens<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-goat-paths/
