And The Nightingales Were Singing Poem by Emmanuel George Cefai

And the nightingales were singing
Do you remember that?
The wine was not liquid but like gum
And it fell slow and seeping
Down the trees it fell.

It was mimicking the Milky Way.
Where the milk of the stars
Was trickling down
Drop after dropp of milk
Gum like in those giant gums
Of immense distances.

For the heavens have such tears.
And the immense heavens have
Immense tears.
For immense things propense are
To immense things.

And then
Throughout the night when Zephyr
Watching with glistening eyes
The summit stars decided
To unwind his bag of winds
A little – just a little;
Then
There cascaded in the immensity
Of the night blue heavens
There cascaded
The solemn winds and on the sea
The sails swelled.
It was centuries ago.

But from the Milky Way a Star
Was observing film-like
Centuries ago before its eyes.
Ah! The transposition of time
And motion in a ray – it is
Just like a film, just like a film
It wanders in the silence of the nights.

It was an intelligent night.
And the moon smiled and shone
Even on the seas it shone
Silver and white alternating
In the ups and downs of the waves
Small and introvert:
And calm.

Ah! Verse and song
ah! Verse and song
For You
I will not exchange this or that:
‘It is your duty, sir, ’ he said
‘Yes, ’ I said, ‘I will but await;
First I must sing my song and verse
And string till moment come
That I string not
The lyre the Muse gave and that
As regards use is loaned to me:
I cannot sir, duty must be, but
Tarry yet.’

And the Human smiled for he understood
And in him too the Muse entered too
As magic spirits in the trees of a wood.