1 <br /> <br /> <br />A cloud moved close. The bulk of the wind shifted. <br />A tree swayed over water. <br />A voice said: <br />Stay. Stay by the slip-ooze. Stay. <br /> <br /> <br />Dearest tree, I said, may I rest here? <br />A ripple made a soft reply. <br />I waited, alert as a dog. <br />The leech clinging to a stone waited; <br />And the crab, the quiet breather. <br /> <br />2 <br /> <br /> <br />Slow, slow as a fish she came, <br />Slow as a fish coming forward, <br />Swaying in a long wave; <br />Her skirts not touching a leaf, <br />Her white arms reaching towards me. <br /> <br /> <br />She came without sound, <br />Without brushing the wet stones, <br />In the soft dark of early evening, <br />She came, <br />The wind in her hair, <br />The moon beginning. <br /> <br />3 <br /> <br /> <br />I woke in the first of morning. <br />Staring at a tree, I felt the pulse of a stone. <br /> <br /> <br />Where’s she now, I kept saying. <br />Where’s she now, the mountain’s downy girl? <br /> <br /> <br />But the bright day had no answer. <br />A wind stirred in a web of appleworms; <br />The tree, the close willow, swayed.<br /><br />Theodore Roethke<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-visitant/
