Going Back by D.H. Lawrence — Read

THE NIGHT turns slowly round, / Swift trains go by in a rush of light; / Slow trains steal past. / This train beats anxiously, outward bound.

But I am not here. / I am away, beyond the scope of this turning; / There, where the pivot is, the axis / Of all this gear.

I, who sit in tears, / I, whose heart is torn with parting; / Who cannot bear to think back to the departure platform; / My spirit hears

Voices of men / Sound of artillery, aeroplanes, presences, / And more than all, the dead-sure silence, / The pivot again.

There, at the axis / Pain, or love, or grief / Sleep on speed; in dead certainty; / Pure relief.

There, at the pivot / Time sleeps again. / No has-been, no here-after; only the perfected / Silence of men.