Alden Nowlan - Night of Storm lyrics

Night of Storm After each silence I hear the storm gather its strength in the snowbound thicket northwest of the river (in the dark, sleepless I time it to daytime things), hear it howl over black-white ice, bound the open fallow, clamber the ridge, thrash, falter and stammer in a tangle of beech, yellow birch and maple, break free and attack this house, lunge at these doors till they almost give, then, as if on signal sink under the sills and whimper, shrink to a groan on the porch steps, die at the cellar windows- where the breath pauses in my throat and chest as though in sympathy with the wind.