Correspondences                                                          Page 56

The minds, imaginations and memories of children and women are opened in a

hushed moment, and the children especially are transformed by the appearance

of creatures of the wild.   "No one called out loudly; everyone said

"Hush"... Everyone said "Hush"; no one spoke loudly." There are no sermons

or disputations, no moral lessons. Everyone looks quietly at two herons,

wordlessly connected with them. After a long moment, as suddenly and quietly

as they arrived, the herons disappear, taking the remaining light with them,

leaving their unforgettable trace:

It was after a day's rain:

the street facing the west

was lit with growing yellow,

the black road gleamed.

First one child looked and saw

and told another.

Face after face, the windows

flowered with eyes.

It was like a long fuse lighted,

the news travelling.

No one called out loudly;

everyone said "Hush".

The light deepened; the wet road

answered in daffodil colours,

and down its centre

walked the two tall herons.

Stranger than wild birds, even,

what happened on those faces:

suddenly believing in something,

they smiled and opened.

Children thought of fountains,

circuses, swans feeding,

women remembered words

spoken when they were young.

Everyone said "Hush";

no one spoke loudly,

but suddenly the herons

rose and were gone. The light faded.