A Grain of Rice

F. R. Scott
From:   Events and Signals. Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1954.

Such majestic rhythms, such tiny disturbances.
The rain of the monsoon falls, an inescapable treasure,
Hundreds of millions live
Only because of the certainty of this season,
              The turn of the wind.

The frame of our human house rests on the motion
Of earth and of moon, the rise of continents,
Invasion of deserts, erosion of hills,
              The capping of ice.

Today, while Europe tilted, drying the Baltic,
I read of a battle between brothers in anguish.
              A flag moved a mile.

And today, from a curled leaf cocoon, in the course of its rhythm,
I saw the break of a shell, the creation
Of a great Asian moth, radiant, fragile,
Incapable of not being born, and trembling
              To live its brief moment.

Religions build walls round our love, and science
Is equal of truth and of error. Yet always we find
Such ordered purpose in cell and in galaxy,
So great a glory in life-thrust and mind-range,
Such widening frontiers to draw out our longings,
              We grow to one world

Poem 1 | Poem 2 | Poem 3 | Poem 4 | Poem 5 | Poem 6

F. R. Scott's works copyright © to The Estate of the Author.