The Sound of Rain

Older than anything else in the world
Is the sound of rain.
Earth 's without form again, and void,
And the waters cover it.
Land has not risen above its tidal plain,
And grey is the gloom of all, in and around and above it.

Life is an unborn brooding still
On the face of the earth,
And God has not found a way, yet,
To dwell in the waters.
And the sound of rain is a sound that is never still,
And men have not come yet, nor the sons of men nor the daughters.

No green thing is about; and no bird's wing
Alights in branches.
Time and space are steeped in a sound
That is steeped in sorrow.
Winds are unknown; there is only room for the sigh
That besogs the day and the night, and the end of night, and the morrow.