Rivers to the Sea | Page 5

of spring,
Come with arms outstretched to
take me,
Come with lips pursed up to cling.
Come, for life is a frail moth flying
Caught in the web of the years that pass,
And soon we two, so warm
and eager
Will be as the gray stones in the grass.
MOODS
I AM the still rain falling,
Too tired for singing mirth--
Oh, be the green fields calling,
Oh, be for me the earth!
I am the brown bird pining

To leave the nest and fly--
Oh, be the fresh cloud shining,
Oh, be for me the sky!
APRIL SONG
WILLOW in your April gown
Delicate and gleaming,
Do you mind in years gone by
All my dreaming?
Spring was like a call to me
That I could not answer,
I was chained to loneliness,
I, the dancer.
Willow, twinkling in the sun,
Still your leaves and hear me,
I can answer spring at last,
Love is near me!
MAY DAY
THE shining line of motors,
The swaying motor-bus,
The prancing dancing horses
Are passing by for us.
The sunlight on the steeple,
The toys we stop to see,
The smiling passing people
Are all for you and me.
"I love you and I love you!"--

"And oh, I love you, too!"--
"All of the flower girl's lilies
Were only grown for you!"
Fifth Avenue and April
And love and lack of care--
The world is mad with music
Too beautiful to bear.
CROWNED
I WEAR a crown invisible and clear,
And go my lifted royal way apart
Since you have crowned me softly
in your heart
With love that is half ardent, half austere;
And as a
queen disguised might pass anear
The bitter crowd that barters in a mart,
Veiling her pride while tears
of pity start,
I hide my glory thru a jealous fear.
My crown shall
stay a sweet and secret thing
Kept pure with prayer at evensong and morn,
And when you come to
take it from my head,
I shall not weep, nor will a word be said,
But
I shall kneel before you, oh my king,
And bind my brow forever with a thorn.
TO A CASTILIAN SONG
WE held the book together timidly,
Whose antique music in an alien tongue
Once rose among the
dew-drenched vines that hung
Beneath a high Castilian balcony.
I
felt the lute strings' ancient ecstasy,
And while he read, my love-filled heart was stung,
And throbbed, as

where an ardent bird has clung
The branches tremble on a blossomed
tree.
Oh lady for whose sake the song was made,
Laid long ago in
some still cypress shade,
Divided from the man who longed for thee,
Here in a land whose name he never heard,
His song brought love as
April brings the bird,
And not a breath divides my love from me!
BROADWAY
THIS is the quiet hour; the theaters
Have gathered in their crowds, and steadily
The million lights blaze
on for few to see,
Robbing the sky of stars that should be hers.
A
woman waits with bag and shabby furs,
A somber man drifts by, and only we
Pass up the street unwearied,
warm and free,
For over us the olden magic stirs.
Beneath the liquid
splendor of the lights
We live a little ere the charm is spent;
This night is ours, of all the
golden nights,
The pavement an enchanted palace floor,
And Youth the player on
the viol, who sent
A strain of music thru an open door.
A WINTER BLUEJAY
CRISPLY the bright snow whispered,
Crunching beneath our feet;

Behind us as we walked along the parkway,
Our shadows danced,

Fantastic shapes in vivid blue.
Across the lake the skaters
Flew to
and fro,
With sharp turns weaving
A frail invisible net.
In ecstasy
the earth
Drank the silver sunlight;
In ecstasy the skaters
Drank

the wine of speed;
In ecstasy we laughed
Drinking the wine of love.

Had not the music of our joy
Sounded its highest note?
But no,

For suddenly, with lifted eyes you said,
"Oh look!"
There, on the
black bough of a snow flecked maple,
Fearless and gay as our love,

A bluejay cocked his crest!
Oh who can tell the range of joy
Or set
the bounds of beauty?
IN A RESTAURANT
THE darkened street was muffled with the snow,
The falling flakes had made your shoulders white,
And when we
found a shelter from the night
Its glamor fell upon us like a blow.

The clash of dishes and the viol and bow
Mingled beneath the fever of the light.
The heat was full of savors,
and the bright
Laughter of women lured the wine to flow.
A little
child ate nothing while she sat
Watching a woman at a table there
Lean to a kiss beneath a drooping
hat.
The hour went by, we rose and turned to go,
The somber street
received us from the glare,
And once more on your shoulders fell the snow.
JOY
I AM wild, I will sing to the trees,
I will sing to the stars in the sky,
I love, I am loved, he is mine,
Now at last I can die!
I am sandaled with wind and with flame,
I