Rivers to the Sea Part 4

ENOUGH

IT is enough for me by day To walk the same bright earth with him; Enough that over us by night The same great roof of stars is dim.

I have no care to bind the wind Or set a fetter on the sea-- It is enough to feel his love Blow by like music over me.

ALCHEMY

I LIFT my heart as spring lifts up A yellow daisy to the rain; My heart will be a lovely cup Altho' it holds but pain.

For I shall learn from flower and leaf That color every drop they hold, To change the lifeless wine of grief To living gold.

FEBRUARY

THEY spoke of him I love With cruel words and gay; My lips kept silent guard On all I could not say.

I heard, and down the street The lonely trees in the square Stood in the winter wind Patient and bare.

I heard . . . oh voiceless trees Under the wind, I knew The eager terrible spring Hidden in you.

MORNING

I WENT out on an April morning All alone, for my heart was high, I was a child of the shining meadow, I was a sister of the sky.

There in the windy flood of morning Longing lifted its weight from me, Lost as a sob in the midst of cheering, Swept as a sea-bird out to sea.

MAY NIGHT

THE spring is fresh and fearless And every leaf is new, The world is brimmed with moonlight, The lilac brimmed with dew.

Here in the moving shadows I catch my breath and sing-- My heart is fresh and fearless And over-brimmed with spring.

DUSK IN JUNE

EVENING, and all the birds In a chorus of shimmering sound Are easing their hearts of joy For miles around.

The air is blue and sweet, The few first stars are white,-- Oh let me like the birds Sing before night.

LOVE-FREE

I AM free of love as a bird flying south in the autumn, Swift and intent, asking no joy from another, Glad to forget all of the pa.s.sion of April Ere it was love-free.

I am free of love, and I listen to music lightly, But if he returned, if he should look at me deeply, I should awake, I should awake and remember I am my lover's.

SUMMER NIGHT, RIVERSIDE

IN the wild soft summer darkness How many and many a night we two together Sat in the park and watched the Hudson Wearing her lights like golden spangles Glinting on black satin.

The rail along the curving pathway Was low in a happy place to let us cross, And down the hill a tree that dripped with bloom Sheltered us While your kisses and the flowers, Falling, falling, Tangled my hair. . . .

The frail white stars moved slowly over the sky.

And now, far off In the fragrant darkness The tree is tremulous again with bloom For June comes back.

To-night what girl When she goes home, Dreamily before her mirror shakes from her hair This year's blossoms, clinging in its coils ?

IN A SUBWAY STATION

AFTER a year I came again to the place; The tireless lights and the reverberation, The angry thunder of trains that burrow the ground, The hunted, hurrying people were still the same-- But oh, another man beside me and not you!

Another voice and other eyes in mine!

And suddenly I turned and saw again The gleaming curve of tracks, the bridge above-- They were burned deep into my heart before, The night I watched them to avoid your eyes, When you were saying, "Oh, look up at me!"

When you were saying, "Will you never love me?"

And when I answered with a lie. Oh then You dropped your eyes. I felt your utter pain.

I would have died to say the truth to you.

After a year I came again to the place-- The hunted hurrying people were still the same....

AFTER LOVE

THERE is no magic when we meet, We speak as other people do, You work no miracle for me Nor I for you.

You were the wind and I the sea-- There is no splendor any more, I have grown listless as the pool Beside the sh.o.r.e.