Absence by Elizabeth Jennings

Absence

I visited the place where we last met.
 Nothing was changed, the gardens were well-tended
 The fountains sprayed their usual steady jet;
 There was no sign that anything had ended
 And nothing to instruct me to forget.

 The thoughtless birds that shook out of the trees,
 Singing an ecstasy I could not share,
 Played cunning in my thoughts. Surely in these
 Pleasures there could not be a pain to bear
Or any discord shake the level breeze.

 It was because the place was just the same
That made your absence seem  a savage force,
 For under all the gentleness there came
 An earthquake tremor: fountain, birds and grass
 Were shaken by my thinking of your name.

by
 Elizabeth Jennings

Nature Metaphors - Beauty vs destruction, garden like - tamed, pristine, ordered
Inner turmoil
Statis
Movement
Absence/loss