The Windless Nights of June

Out on the lawn I lie in bed,
Vega conspicuous overhead
In the windless nights of June;
Forests of green have done complete
The day’s activity; my feet
Point to the rising moon.

Lucky, this point in time and space
Is chosen as my working place;
Where the sexy airs of summer,
The bathing hours and the bare arms,
The leisured drives through a land of farms,
Are good to the newcomer.

Equal with colleagues in a ring
I sit on each calm evening,
Enchanted as the flowers
The opening light draws out of hiding
From leaves with all its dove-like pleading
Its logic and its powers.

from “‘Out on the lawn I lie in bed’ (To Geoffrey Hoyland)” by W.H. Auden

The painting, which admittedly does not depict enchanted flowers or forests of green, is West Texas Starry Night by American Plains artist Alice Leese.