A FRESH START

It's easy to be pessimistic nowadays: indeed, gloom seems to be the default setting for many of us, and I am no exception. 
What a pleasure, then, to discover this long-lost villanelle tucked away in a bundle of lost poems that resurfaced recently.
Whilst it's not one of my better efforts, its theme is refreshingly upbeat.

THE WORLD STOPS TURNING
 
The world stops turning then begins again
and suddenly, abruptly, change has come.
Blooms burst in deserts fresh with gentle rain.

Rain-forests rise, reach heavenwards, attain
full grandeur, scorn the chainsaw’s hum.
The world stops turning then begins again.

The bare ravine becomes a verdant glen.
Trees blush with fruit. Famine is overcome.
Blooms burst in deserts fresh with gentle rain.

Bright birds repopulate a blighted fen.
Fish spawn in rivers where there once were none.
The world stops turning then begins again.

Returning life reclaims its lost terrain,
a verdant place beneath an orange sun.
Blooms burst in deserts fresh with gentle rain.

Old men grow young, straight-backed, forget their pain:
they shrug off leaden years, so burdensome.
The world stops turning then begins again.
Blooms burst in deserts fresh with gentle rain.