White Magic
By John Herlihy

In our uninhibited exuberance for the beauties of Mother Nature;
We sometimes seem to forget the strength of nature’s dark force.
Peel back the layers of beauty only to discover a sinister black magic,
Hidden amid the divine adornments nature draws from its source.

The lush grasses of rolling countryside are covered in autumn frost;
The sky remote as heaven and cold as steel in this season of Pentecost.
Bone grey clouds gather their forces and roam the sky with lurid haloes;
The desperate daylight seeking ways to shine forth on the earth below.

A lonely redwood farmhouse gleamed against a row of forest trees;
Trees dark and waving ominously with branches full of dead leaves.
By the house, deep green growths were grey with the powder of frost;
Weeds drained the fading colors in the flower-beds until all color is lost.

The house stood waist-high in a melee of shrubs and bushes in a bundle.
Too luxuriant in these northern climes, lending the air of an arctic jungle.
A grey confusion filled the country fields, protected by a straw scarecrow;
A great continent of cloud hovered overhead suggesting: “It’s going to snow."

The pillars of trees in the distance now seem dwarfed by this canopy of cloud;
As I say, Nature comes dressed in all its divine glory, but what is this shroud?
On the fencing and up the side of the barn cling the sinews of creepy vines;
The grey canopy of cloud seems to bow down to earth amid the forest pines.

Sometimes Mother Nature seems to draw upon a mind with elaborate schemes;
Earthquakes, tsunamis and unrestrained storms are exactly what nature seems.
The wild forces use a secret language to break the rhythms that design brings;
Mysterious signs and wordless pictures invoke the names of nameless things.

The fall of twilight accompanied by the angelic horde of snow falling down,
Drifting idly from Heaven to Earth as if the landscape with peace to crown.
The land suddenly whitened into a purity that earlier seemed almost tragic;
The earth now cast into a divine glow that seemed born of a white magic.