Poem by the Swedish poet Sten Hagliden (1905-1979)

Fault

When the foundation broke...sank

– dim distant past –

the fissured walls stood full

of sharp splinters

                  in their primary-rock despair,

knew no time, the indefatigable soil-collector

had no idea that the algae would weave deep-green,

the moss gush forth its softness,

the grass travel down with short tuft-steps,

knew nothing of the first bird,

breeding

in the creeping thicket of a cleft