Sea Poems Part 7

V

IN A DARK HOUR

You are not with me--only the moon, The sea and the gulls' cry, out of tune; The myriad cry of the gulls still strewn On the sands where the tide will enter soon.

You are not with me, only the breath Of the wind--and then the wind's death.

A shrouding silence then that saith, "Even as wind love vanisheth."

You are not with me--only fear, As old as earth's first frenzied bier That severed two whose hearts were near, And left one with all Life unclear.

VI

VIA AMOROSA

When we two walk, my love, on the path The moon makes over the sea, To the end of the world where sorrow hath An end that is ecstasy, Should we not think of the other road Of wearying dust and stone Our feet would fare did each but care To follow the way alone?

When we two slip at night to the skies And find one star that we keep As a trysting-place to which our eyes May lead our souls ere sleep, Should we not pause for a little s.p.a.ce And think how many must sigh Because they gaze over starry ways With no heart-comrade by?

When we two then lie down to our dreams That deepen still the delight Of our wandering where stars and streams Stray in immortal light, Should we not grieve with the myriads From East of earth to West Who lay them down at night but to drown A longing for some loved breast?

Ah, yes, for life has a thousand gifts, But love it is gives life.

Who walks thro his world in loneness lifts A soul that is sorrow-rife.

But they to whom it is given to tread The moon-path and not sink Can ever say the unhappiest way Earth has is fair, to the brink.

VII

TRANSFUSION

A shoal-light flashes east, And livid lightning west, The silvery dark night-sea between, On which we ride at rest, And gaze far, far away Into the fretless skies, World-sadness in our thought--but ah, Content within our eyes.

The ship's bell strikes--the sound Floats shrouded to our ears, Then suddenly, as at a touch, The universe appears A Presence Infinite That penetrates our love And makes us one with night and sea And all the stars above.

NEED OF STORM

(_Naples-on-the-Gulf_)

On the green floor of the Gulf the wind is walking, Printing it with invisible feet; The tide is talking.

Purple and grey the horizon walls them round With purpler clouds.

They wander in it like guests gently astray In a house deep mystery shrouds.

I do not know the speech of the tide, For too articulate have become my years: Beauty brings only words, not breathless tears.

So the young heron fishing there in the foam On the sand's edge, Would once have taken my spirit far, far home To the infinite, when he vanished thro the gloam.

But now I am left behind on the beach--a sh.e.l.l That no more knows the wonder of the sea's swell, Or more than the empty echo of its knell.

To sea then, Life, wildly to sea with a storm Sweep me again, From the smooth dull beach of custom where I lie, That I may feel once more The swaying surge of pa.s.sion thro me swarm!

A FLORIDA INTERLUDE

(_Naples-on-the-Gulf_)

I

Behind me lie the Everglades, The mystic gra.s.sy Everglades, Where the moccasin and the Seminole glide In secret silent Indian ways.

Before me lies the Gulf, The cup of blue bright tropic waters, Held to the parched lips of the South To cool and quench its thirst.

Behind me lie the Everglades, Before me lies the Gulf, Which the sunset soon shall change to wine, A Eucharist for the longing soul.

Its rim of land shall be transformed To Mexic opal and chrysoprase, And then shall come the moon As calm as a thought of Christ.

As calm as a thought of Christ-- Over the cup's sand-rim enchased With palm and pine, Floridian friends, Saying their twilight litanies; While homeward flies the heron To his island cypress in the swamp, Which Spanish mosses drape and the moon Silverly soothes to peace.

II

Behind me lie the Everglades, Where the bittern wails to the moon's face.

Peace is gone as I wake And memory in me wails From the primal swamp, Heredity, Whence I have come with all the desires Of creeping, walking, flying things, To creep or walk or fly.

With all the desires of the earth-creatures; Yet with a want transcendent, A want that comes with the glimmer of stars And pierces to my heart.

A want of the life I have not known, Of the life unknowable, In the Everglades of the Universe Where the Great Spirit glides.

A FLORIDA BOATING SONG

Down thro Florida keys, From island, to island!

Down thro Florida keys, Where mangrove roots dip in the seas!

A myriad tangled roots From each palmetto byland, Oyster-encrusted roots mid which The heron wades in the shallow shades!

Down thro Florida keys, Around them, between them, Thro low green Florida keys, So low they scarce seem born of the seas!

Where pouchy pelicans roost On cypresses that lean them Out over the idle lap of the tide That comes and goes with balmy flows!

Down thro Florida keys, Thro mazes on mazes Of ripple-encircled keys, Where sun and wind play as they please!

Where the eaglet, high in air, Or the wild white ibis, dazes Eyes that follow them up the blue, As the heart would do, the heart too!

Down thro Florida keys I'm going, I'm going!