‘The Opal Sea’

An inland sea – blue as a sapphire – set Within a sparkling, emerald mountain chain Where day and night fir-needles sift like rain Thro’ the voluptuous air. The soft winds fret The waves, and beat them wantonly to foam. The golden distances across the sea Are shot with rose and purple. Languorously The silver seabirds in wide circles roam. The sun drops slowly down the flaming West And flings its rays across to set aglow The islands rocking on the cool waves’ crest And the great glistening domes of snow on snow. And thro’ the mist the Olympics flash and float Like opals linked around a beating throat.