"There is no poem, no painting that will hold..." (Robert Lax)

There is no poem, no painting
that will hold on paper or canvas
the look of the three trees
standing in the valley
with their young green leaves.

They are three girls
pouring speech like water
poised and waiting
for their dancing lesson.

They are three girls on tiptoe
with arms uplifted
dancing in the valley's early light.

- Robert Lax, written in the 1940's (from A Thing That Is, 1997)