O, but how bright and beautiful is she, 
Her mane billows at a toss of her head, 
Never a prouder horse did you yet see, 
As stars shimmer in her coat; black as lead. 
This fine fiery mare of starry night, 
This creature made of darkness and moonbeams, 
Her coat a mirror, reflecting all light, 
Was borne of a mere mortal’s sweet daydreams. 
Ebony! I reach out, call out her name, 
She snorts and whirls away, leaving me here. 
Then suddenly she spins, and as if tame, 
Comes to me, her eyes soft and dark and clear. 
I touch silky mane; through it fingers wind, 
And then, we leap, flying fleet as the wind. 

No diamond jewel could compare
To the worth of a raindrop in summer.
No emerald or ruby could compare
To the brilliant hues of a hummingbird.
No opal gemstone could compare
To the snowy feathers of an egret.

For all they take a million years to make,
These things of rock and metal make
Some forget nature’s living creatures.

What diamond dropped from the sky
Could make a trillion living things grow?
What emerald or ruby could defy
The laws of science and fly?
What opal shaped to feather mimicry
Could cloak in warmth a living being?

Why do we so value these things of rock and metal,
But heedlessly cause other living things to die?

The evergreens buried in drifting snow,
Bow their branches, laden with perching birds.
This whole place glazed with silver ice, aglow
With mirrored light, silent but for the birds.
Then through the melting snow breaks brilliant green,
And creatures venture forth from winter dens.

Deer roam the fields, the wolf’s no longer lean,
Back are the bright hummingbirds, drabber wrens.
Flowers bloom in riots of brilliant color,
The young pups and chicks of spring have grown.
Then trees burst into fire’s brilliant color,
The hummingbirds, wrens, buntings have now flown.
And so fall shifts to winter, as summer
Did fall; as the seasons will forever.

A thousand tiny twinkling lights,
In the blue-black velvet night,
A thousand glittering brilliant pin-pricks,
In the arching dome of sky.
A million glowing points of light,
I see in the blue-black velvet night.
So clear and bright, a swirling white,
In the deep black velvet night.