COUNTRY PEACE

                                                COUNTRY    PEACE


I needed a drive in the country. I
needed to see bare tree outlines, their laced-
shaped branches reaching upward to the sky;
needed to see stagnant water standing--
its space of liquid gleaming  more darkly than ever--
in its field of brown stubble.  I needed
to see the earth, not dying but clever
as its frozen winter self.  I heeded
my yearning for this sight of winter life
and went for  a drive in the country, bare,
and was rewarded with its beauty, rife
with simplicity and its peace, so rare.