Second April | Page 4

save souls of sinners?Worth the saving from a fire?
Withered grass,--the wasted growing!?Aimless ache of laden boughs!"?Little things God had forgotten?Called me, from my burning house.
"Though in Heaven," I said, "be all?That the eye could ask to see,?All the things I ever knew?Are this blaze in back of me."
"Though in Heaven," I said, "be all?That the ear could think to lack,?All the things I ever knew?Are this roaring at my back."
It was God who walked ahead,?Like a shepherd to the fold;?In his footsteps fared the weak,?And the weary and the old,
Glad enough of gladness over,?Ready for the peace to be,--?But a thing God had forgotten?Was the growing bones of me.
And I drew a bit apart,?And I lagged a bit behind,?And I thought on Peace Eternal,?Lest He look into my mind:
And I gazed upon the sky,?And I thought of Heavenly Rest,--?And I slipped away like water?Through the fingers of the blest!
All their eyes were fixed on Glory,?Not a glance brushed over me;?"Alleluia! Alleluia!"?Up the road,--and I was free.
And my heart rose like a freshet,?And it swept me on before,?Giddy as a whirling stick,?Till I felt the earth once more.
All the earth was charred and black,?Fire had swept from pole to pole;?And the bottom of the sea?Was as brittle as a bowl;
And the timbered mountain-top?Was as naked as a skull,--?Nothing left, nothing left,?Of the Earth so beautiful!
"Earth," I said, "how can I leave you?"?"You are all I have," I said;?"What is left to take my mind up,?Living always, and you dead?"
"Speak!" I said, "Oh, tell me something!?Make a sign that I can see!?For a keepsake! To keep always!?Quick!--before God misses me!"
And I listened for a voice;--?But my heart was all I heard;?Not a screech-owl, not a loon,?Not a tree-toad said a word.
And I waited for a sign;--?Coals and cinders, nothing more;?And a little cloud of smoke?Floating on a valley floor.
And I peered into the smoke?Till it rotted, like a fog:--?There, encompassed round by fire,?Stood a blue-flag in a bog!
Little flames came wading out,?Straining, straining towards its stem,?But it was so blue and tall?That it scorned to think of them!
Red and thirsty were their tongues,?As the tongues of wolves must be,?But it was so blue and tall--?Oh, I laughed, I cried, to see!
All my heart became a tear,?All my soul became a tower,?Never loved I anything?As I loved that tall blue flower!
It was all the little boats?That had ever sailed the sea,?It was all the little books?That had gone to school with me;
On its roots like iron claws?Rearing up so blue and tall,--?It was all the gallant Earth?With its back against a wall!
In a breath, ere I had breathed,--?Oh, I laughed, I cried, to see!--?I was kneeling at its side,?And it leaned its head on me!
Crumbling stones and sliding sand?Is the road to Heaven now;?Icy at my straining knees?Drags the awful under-tow;
Soon but stepping-stones of dust?Will the road to Heaven be,--?Father, Son and Holy Ghost,?Reach a hand and rescue me!
"There--there, my blue-flag flower;?Hush--hush--go to sleep;?That is only God you hear,?Counting up His folded sheep!
Lullabye--lullabye--?That is only God that calls,?Missing me, seeking me,?Ere the road to nothing falls!
He will set His mighty feet?Firmly on the sliding sand;?Like a little frightened bird?I will creep into His hand;
I will tell Him all my grief,?I will tell Him all my sin;?He will give me half His robe?For a cloak to wrap you in.
Lullabye--lullabye--"?Rocks the burnt-out planet free!--?Father, Son and Holy Ghost,?Reach a hand and rescue me!
Ah, the voice of love at last!?Lo, at last the face of light!?And the whole of His white robe?For a cloak against the night!
And upon my heart asleep?All the things I ever knew!--?"Holds Heaven not some cranny, Lord,?For a flower so tall and blue?"
All's well and all's well!?Gay the lights of Heaven show!?In some moist and Heavenly place?We will set it out to grow.
JOURNEY
Ah, could I lay me down in this long grass?And close my eyes, and let the quiet wind?Blow over me--I am so tired, so tired?Of passing pleasant places! All my life,?Following Care along the dusty road,?Have I looked back at loveliness and sighed;?Yet at my hand an unrelenting hand?Tugged ever, and I passed. All my life long?Over my shoulder have I looked at peace;?And now I fain would lie in this long grass?And close my eyes.
Yet onward!
Cat birds call
Through the long afternoon, and creeks at dusk?Are guttural. Whip-poor-wills wake and cry,?Drawing the twilight close about their throats.?Only my heart makes answer. Eager vines?Go up the rocks and wait; flushed apple-trees?Pause in their dance and break the ring for me;?Dim, shady