storm the gates of nothingness

Just a little one, today. I swear I'm not only posting Sassoon because of all the Generation Kill -- he was on my spreadsheet! I really adore the WWI war poets; this one is also not exactly a war poem. (Still, I can probably guarantee that if I ever do end up writing Generation Kill fic, it will have a lot of Classical allusions and randomly reference Siegfried Sassoon.)

Tossed on the glittering air they soar and skim,
Whose voices make the emptiness of light
A windy palace. Quavering from the brim
Of dawn, and bold with song at edge of night,
They clutch their leafy pinnacles and sing
Scornful of man, and from his toils aloof
Whose heart’s a haunted woodland whispering;
Whose thoughts return on tempest-baffled wing;
Who hears the cry of God in everything,
And storms the gate of nothingness for proof.

~Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967), "Thrushes" from Counter-Attack and Other Poems, 1918.

Meanwhile, I am back in bed with the internet and a cup of tea, for a while: the perfect Saturday morning. I may even be able to refrain from murdering the air-raid-siren birds outside my open window. We'll see how it goes.