An Evening by the River

The sun sinks slowly out of sight,
Slowly fades the light of day,
The sky is bathed in dusky glow,
Purple, pink, and shades of gray.

I sit upon a stone and watch
The serene, soothing twilight scene,
And the river flows calm and wide,
And so forever it has been.

The ripples lap upon the rocks,
A frog hops in with lazy splash,
A dragon-fly whirrs gauzy wings,
In the shallows the fishes flash.

The swimming ducks that suddenly dive,
Surface after a long-drawn pause,
And from the overhanging boughs,
The crows send out their raucous caws.

The wind sings in the leafy trees,
The wind whispers in the reeds,
A heron, with uplifted leg,
Wades about among the weeds.

Overhead, cormorants fly
In formation, a fluid V;
On grassy bank the cattle graze
And on their backs, egrets ride free.

A fisherman in a coracle,
Spreads his net across the stream,
And twilight slips into the night,
In the sky stars faintly gleam,

And I muse on the many men,
That to this place have come and gone,
While before me, tranquilly,
The broad river flows on and on.