The Poetry Corner

The Winter Soldier: The Pool.

By Edward Shanks

Out of that noise and hurry of large life The river flings me in an idle pool: The waters still go on with stir and strife And sunlit eddies, and the beautiful Tall trees lean down upon the mighty flow, Reflected in that movement.Beauty there Waxes more beautiful, the moments grow Thicker and keener in that lovely air Above the river.Here small sticks and straws Come now to harbour, gather, lie and rot, Out of cross-currents and the water's flaws In this unmoving death, where joy is not, Where war's a shade again, ambition rotten And bitter hopes and fears alike forgotten.