After Rain

Happiness is a quality of light
A way of seeing
In the falling of the long sun
The marvellous horizontal shower.

The naked tree
Sprouts leaves again
Earth's inmost sense
Burns with a greenish fire.

The travelling light knocks
At the threshold of the heart
Summons essential being
To this calm where
home need armour self
From all that's other.

There is a moment in the falling light
I stand in the sun
Knowing my portion of its blessing 
Vast as the world.

In the ultimate sharing
I am content to hold
My lease of being, as the leaf
That shivers in the sun
And scribbles on the air
No greater tale
Than my most pregnant song.

Cathleen Benson