(an English sonnet)

In the crystalline, becalmed air
The thought held its place there
By the picture of large regret,

The sailors’ sorrow, the broken net
That caught not fish the day described
Windswept in that darkening bay.

Now the picture is seen as skill,
A trial, a test of human will
Where brush was placed just so

Until the years have slid away,
Perspective changed, explained to mean
The known unseen: a cloud,

A breeze, the color blue, what holds
A word, and what is true.