Love Songs | Page 6

on its crest?One diamond morning white with sun.
But I will turn my eyes from you?As women turn to put away?The jewels they have worn at night?And cannot wear in sober day.
II
Interlude: Songs out of Sorrow
I. Spirit's House
From naked stones of agony?I will build a house for me;?As a mason all alone?I will raise it, stone by stone,?And every stone where I have bled?Will show a sign of dusky red.?I have not gone the way in vain,?For I have good of all my pain;?My spirit's quiet house will be?Built of naked stones I trod?On roads where I lost sight of God.
II. Mastery
I would not have a god come in?To shield me suddenly from sin,?And set my house of life to rights;?Nor angels with bright burning wings?Ordering my earthly thoughts and things;?Rather my own frail guttering lights?Wind blown and nearly beaten out;?Rather the terror of the nights?And long, sick groping after doubt;?Rather be lost than let my soul?Slip vaguely from my own control --?Of my own spirit let me be?In sole though feeble mastery.
III. Lessons
Unless I learn to ask no help?From any other soul but mine,?To seek no strength in waving reeds?Nor shade beneath a straggling pine;?Unless I learn to look at Grief?Unshrinking from her tear-blind eyes,?And take from Pleasure fearlessly?Whatever gifts will make me wise --?Unless I learn these things on earth,?Why was I ever given birth?
IV. Wisdom
When I have ceased to break my wings?Against the faultiness of things,?And learned that compromises wait?Behind each hardly opened gate,?When I can look Life in the eyes,?Grown calm and very coldly wise,?Life will have given me the Truth,?And taken in exchange -- my youth.
V. In a Burying Ground
This is the spot where I will lie?When life has had enough of me,?These are the grasses that will blow?Above me like a living sea.
These gay old lilies will not shrink?To draw their life from death of mine,?And I will give my body's fire?To make blue flowers on this vine.
"O Soul," I said, "have you no tears??Was not the body dear to you?"?I heard my soul say carelessly,?"The myrtle flowers will grow more blue."
VI. Wood Song
I heard a wood thrush in the dusk?Twirl three notes and make a star --?My heart that walked with bitterness?Came back from very far.
Three shining notes were all he had,?And yet they made a starry call --?I caught life back against my breast?And kissed it, scars and all.
VII. Refuge
From my spirit's gray defeat,?From my pulse's flagging beat,?From my hopes that turned to sand?Sifting through my close-clenched hand,?From my own fault's slavery,?If I can sing, I still am free.
For with my singing I can make?A refuge for my spirit's sake,?A house of shining words, to be?My fragile immortality.
III
The Flight
Look back with longing eyes and know that I will follow,?Lift me up in your love as a light wind lifts a swallow,?Let our flight be far in sun or blowing rain --?*But what if I heard my first love calling me again?*
Hold me on your heart as the brave sea holds the foam,?Take me far away to the hills that hide your home;?Peace shall thatch the roof and love shall latch the door -- *But what if I heard my first love calling me once more?*
Dew
As dew leaves the cobweb lightly?Threaded with stars,?Scattering jewels on the fence?And the pasture bars;?As dawn leaves the dry grass bright?And the tangled weeds?Bearing a rainbow gem?On each of their seeds;?So has your love, my lover,?Fresh as the dawn,?Made me a shining road?To travel on,?Set every common sight?Of tree or stone?Delicately alight?For me alone.
To-night
The moon is a curving flower of gold,?The sky is still and blue;?The moon was made for the sky to hold,?And I for you.
The moon is a flower without a stem,?The sky is luminous;?Eternity was made for them,?To-night for us.
Ebb Tide
When the long day goes by?And I do not see your face,?The old wild, restless sorrow?Steals from its hiding place.
My day is barren and broken,?Bereft of light and song,?A sea beach bleak and windy?That moans the whole day long.
To the empty beach at ebb tide,?Bare with its rocks and scars,?Come back like the sea with singing,?And light of a million stars.
I Would Live in Your Love
I would live in your love as the sea-grasses live in the sea, Borne up by each wave as it passes, drawn down by each wave that recedes; I would empty my soul of the dreams that have gathered in me, I would beat with your heart as it beats, I would follow your soul as it leads.
Because
Oh, because you never tried?To bow my will or break my pride,?And nothing of the cave-man made?You want to keep me half afraid,?Nor ever with a conquering air?You thought to draw me unaware --?Take me, for I love you more?Than I ever loved before.
And since the body's maidenhood?Alone were neither rare nor good?Unless with