J. N. Cameron
Peace From Ghosts
Wherever men have dwelt
Ghosts, though not felt,
Are thronging round in emptiness always,
Ghosts of old miseries
And agonies,
The haggard storm-rack of disastrous days;
Pains that extinguished life
By surgeon's knife,
Humiliations of poor, cheated brides
Impressed on empty air,
Vibrating there,
Dash to and fro on violent, short tides,
Tossing without a rest
At her behest,
Cold Moon of universal sufferings.
But what has he to do with ghostly things,
The man who is laid here
Inside this bier,
From all those sad or glorious visionings,
That filled or broke his heart,
A thing apart,
Less meaning than an empty cartridge-case;
While underneath the steeple
Some quiet people
With courteous, unsignifying grace
Most decorously lay
Him dead away.
No tides of trouble wash against these coasts.
For surely trouble-free
Must graveyards be,
The only places where there are no ghosts.
Page(s) 14
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