THE ORANGE TREE BY JOHN SHAW NEILSON (Excerpt)#FORWARDED BY CYNTHIA ABEGAIL

THE ORANGE TREE
The young girl stood beside me. I
Saw not what her young eyes could see:
--A light, she said not of the sky
Lives somewhere in the Orange Tree.

--Is it, I said, of east or west?
The heartbeat of a luminous boy
Who with his faltering flute confessed
Only the edges of his joy?

Was he, I said, borne to the blue
In a mad escapade of Spring
Ere he could make a fond adiu
To his love in the blossoming?

--Listen! the young girl said. There calls
No voice, no music beats on me;
But it is almost sound: it falls
--This evening on the Orange Tree..

John Shaw Neilson

(Excellent!)  New World

Source: Barnes, J. and Mcfarlane, B. Cross Country.