Flame and Shadow | Page 5

back to me more beautiful.
In many another soul I broke the bread,?And drank the wine and played the happy guest,?But I was lonely, I remembered you;?The heart belongs to him who knew it best.
"Oh You Are Coming"
Oh you are coming, coming, coming,?How will hungry Time put by the hours till then? --?But why does it anger my heart to long so?For one man out of the world of men?
Oh I would live in myself only?And build my life lightly and still as a dream --?Are not my thoughts clearer than your thoughts?And colored like stones in a running stream?
Now the slow moon brightens in heaven,?The stars are ready, the night is here --?Oh why must I lose myself to love you,?My dear?
The Return
He has come, he is here,?My love has come home,?The minutes are lighter?Than flying foam,?The hours are like dancers?On gold-slippered feet,?The days are young runners?Naked and fleet --?For my love has returned,?He is home, he is here,?In the whole world no other?Is dear as my dear!
Gray Eyes
It was April when you came?The first time to me,?And my first look in your eyes?Was like my first look at the sea.
We have been together?Four Aprils now?Watching for the green?On the swaying willow bough;
Yet whenever I turn?To your gray eyes over me,?It is as though I looked?For the first time at the sea.
The Net
I made you many and many a song,?Yet never one told all you are --?It was as though a net of words?Were flung to catch a star;
It was as though I curved my hand?And dipped sea-water eagerly,?Only to find it lost the blue?Dark splendor of the sea.
The Mystery
Your eyes drink of me,?Love makes them shine,?Your eyes that lean?So close to mine.
We have long been lovers,?We know the range?Of each other's moods?And how they change;
But when we look?At each other so?Then we feel?How little we know;
The spirit eludes us,?Timid and free --?Can I ever know you?Or you know me?
In a Hospital
IV
Open Windows
Out of the window a sea of green trees?Lift their soft boughs like the arms of a dancer,?They beckon and call me, "Come out in the sun!"?But I cannot answer.
I am alone with Weakness and Pain,?Sick abed and June is going,?I cannot keep her, she hurries by?With the silver-green of her garments blowing.
Men and women pass in the street?Glad of the shining sapphire weather,?But we know more of it than they,?Pain and I together.
They are the runners in the sun,?Breathless and blinded by the race,?But we are watchers in the shade?Who speak with Wonder face to face.
The New Moon
Day, you have bruised and beaten me,?As rain beats down the bright, proud sea,?Beaten my body, bruised my soul,?Left me nothing lovely or whole --?Yet I have wrested a gift from you,?Day that dies in dusky blue:
For suddenly over the factories?I saw a moon in the cloudy seas --?A wisp of beauty all alone?In a world as hard and gray as stone --?Oh who could be bitter and want to die?When a maiden moon wakes up in the sky?
Eight O'Clock
Supper comes at five o'clock,?At six, the evening star,?My lover comes at eight o'clock --?But eight o'clock is far.
How could I bear my pain all day?Unless I watched to see?The clock-hands laboring to bring?Eight o'clock to me.
Lost Things
Oh, I could let the world go by,?Its loud new wonders and its wars,?But how will I give up the sky?When winter dusk is set with stars?
And I could let the cities go,?Their changing customs and their creeds, --?But oh, the summer rains that blow?In silver on the jewel-weeds!
Pain
Waves are the sea's white daughters,?And raindrops the children of rain,?But why for my shimmering body?Have I a mother like Pain?
Night is the mother of stars,?And wind the mother of foam --?The world is brimming with beauty,?But I must stay at home.
The Broken Field
My soul is a dark ploughed field?In the cold rain;?My soul is a broken field?Ploughed by pain.
Where grass and bending flowers?Were growing,?The field lies broken now?For another sowing.
Great Sower when you tread?My field again,?Scatter the furrows there?With better grain.
The Unseen
Death went up the hall?Unseen by every one,?Trailing twilight robes?Past the nurse and the nun.
He paused at every door?And listened to the breath?Of those who did not know?How near they were to Death.
Death went up the hall?Unseen by nurse and nun;?He passed by many a door --?But he entered one.
A Prayer
When I am dying, let me know?That I loved the blowing snow?Although it stung like whips;?That I loved all lovely things?And I tried to take their stings?With gay unembittered lips;?That I loved with all my strength,?To my soul's full depth and length,?Careless if my heart must break,?That I sang as children sing?Fitting tunes to everything,?Loving life for its own sake.
V
Spring Torrents
Will it always be like this until I am dead,?Every spring must I bear it all again?With the first red haze of the budding