The Dawn Wind

And though it is deep, dark night, you feel that the night is done...

When a real revolution happens, few of those present are aware of it. At the end of Copernicus’ life probably not a hundred people knew that the earth revolves around the sun, and fewer cared.

It has been said that “the Renaissance was the work of one hundred men” – most people at the time were living in the Middle Ages and not at all aware that something new was happening. In our own time, the environmental movement started out as the concern of a few wild-eyed “greens”, but quickly became a political force to reckon with and the agenda of governments. Such is ‘The Dawn Wind’ – a herald of a better future at a time when all seems oppressive, giving courage in adversity:

“…though it is deep, dark night, you feel that the night is done…”

At two o'clock in the morning, if you open your window and listen,
You will hear the feet of the Wind that is going to call the sun.
And the trees in the shadow rustle and the trees in the moon-light glisten,
And though it is deep, dark night, you feel that the night is done.

So do the cows in the field. They graze for an hour and lie down,
Dozing and chewing the cud; or a bird in the ivy wakes,
Chirrups one note and is still, and the restless Wind strays on,
Fidgeting far down the road, till, softly, the darkness breaks.

Back comes the Wind full strength with a blow like an angel's wing,
Gentle but waking the world, as he shouts: "The Sun! The Sun!"
And the light floods over the fields and the birds begin to sing,
And the Wind dies down in the grass. It is day and his work is done.

So when the world is asleep, and there seems no hope of her waking
Out of some long, bad dream that makes her mutter and moan,
Suddenly, all men arise to the noise of fetters breaking,
And every one smiles at his neighbour and tells him his soul is his own!