QUOTE : There is a monstrous garden in the sky<br />Nightly they sow it fresh. Nightly it springs,<br />Luridly splendid, towards the moon on high.<br />Red-poppy flares, and fire-bombs rosy-bright<br />Shell-bursts like hellborn sunflowers, gold and white<br />Lilies, long-stemmed, that search the heavens' height...<br />They tend it well, these gardeners on wings!<br /><br />How rich these blossoms, hideously fair<br />Sprawling above the shuddering citadel<br />As though ablaze with laughter! Lord, how long<br />Must we behold them flower, ruthless, strong<br />Soaring like weeds the stricken worlds among<br />Triumphant, gay, these dreadful blooms of hell?<br /><br />O give us back the garden that we knew<br />Silent and cool, where silver daisies lie,<br />The lovely stars! O garden purple-blue<br />Where Mary trailed her skirts amidst the dew<br />Of ageless planets, hand-in-hand with You <br />And Sleep and Peace walked with Eternity.....<br /><br />But here I sit, and watch the night roll by.<br />There is a monstrous garden in the sky!<br /><br />(written during an air raid, London, midnight, October 1941)