Piney Wood Ballad

Piney Wood Ballad Why are you hiding behind the scrub pine? / do not hide; I grieve alone. What grief has brought you to the piney wood? A grief which reaches the marrow bone. What echo hammers in the wood? An echo I have not heard before. What winter enters in the mind? The mind is vanishing when it tries to tell. What light has failed in the piney wood? The light of love, the light of song, The light of listening in the rain For a voice travelled to a foreign town. What name resides in the piney wood? Not a name, not a name, not a name for long. The piney wood reads nary a stone, And I am the only one left to tell. -Paul Ramsey 36 ...