SHILOH

Dazzled by the beauty of May, I stand in a bright meadow

Birds whirling, dipping and singing in the grasses all around.

This vision of beauty hedged by elegant trees, Limbs

Heavy with the weight of leaves, nests, new life abounding.

Beneath all, the silence of long ago.  Shiloh!

The trees surround the meadows filled with cannons and

Monuments to the dead, none forgotten, but not at rest.

In all the beauty there is a sense of sorrow.

Beneath all, deep unease abides.  Shiloh!

Behind each shadow, within each sound, pain, deep loneliness

A living current of sound and vision not seen with the eyes.

Time has stopped.  The frames of nature edged with black.

Beneath all, lives impaled on the rage of war.  Shiloh!

Souls of the dead, fallen in battle, wander in this place

Tasting the bitter draught of death and defeat daily.

And the pond, the deep rust red of old blood, is calm, serene.

But, beneath, beneath all?

Rachel is still weeping for her children?  Not home?

No heath and hearth? No passage to heaven?  Too many linger here!

Awaiting the call that never comes - to leave this place, journey on.

Beneath the ground, the haunted ground.  Shiloh!