| |
| I RAN into the sunset light | |
| As hard as I could run: | |
| The treetops bowed in sheer delight | |
| As if they loved the sun: | |
| And all the songs of little birds | 5 |
| Who laughed and cried in silver words | |
| Were joined as they were one. | |
| |
| And down the streaming golden sky | |
| A lark came circling with a cry | |
| Of wonder-weaving joy: | 10 |
| And all the arch of heaven rang | |
| Where meadowlands of dreaming hang | |
| As when I was a boy. | |
| |
| And through the ringing solitude | |
| In pulsing lovely amplitude | 15 |
| A mist hung in a shroud, | |
| As though the light of loneliness | |
| Turned pure delight to holiness, | |
| And bathed it in a cloud. | |
| |
| I stripped my laughing body bare | 20 |
| And plunged into that holy air | |
| That washed me like a sea, | |
| And raced against its silver tide | |
| That stroked my eager glancing side | |
| And made my spirit free. | 25 |
| |
| Across the limits of the land | |
| The wind and I swept hand and hand | |
| Beyond the golden glow. | |
| We danced across the ocean plain | |
| Like thrushes singing in the rain | 30 |
| A song of long ago. | |
| |
| And on into the silver night | |
| We strove to win the race with light | |
| And bring the vision home, | |
| And bring the wonder home again | 35 |
| Unto the sleeping eyes of men | |
| Across the singing foam. | |
| |
| And down the river of the world | |
| Our glowing, limbs in glory swirled | |
| As spring within a flower, | 40 |
| And stars in music of delight | |
| Streamed gayly down our shoulders white | |
| Like petals in a shower. | |
| |
| And tears of awful wonder ran | |
| Adown my cheeks to hear the clan | 45 |
| Of beauty chaunting white | |
| The prayer too deep for living word, | |
| Or sight of man or winging bird, | |
| Or music over forest heard | |
| At falling of the night. | 50 |
| |
| And dropping slowly as the dew | |
| On grasses that the winds renew | |
| In urge of flooding fire, | |
| And softly as the hushing boughs | |
| The gentle airs of dawn arouse | 55 |
| To cradle morning’s quire. | |
| |
| The murmur of the singing leaves | |
| Around the secret Flame, | |
| Like mating swallows ’neath the eaves | |
| In rustling silence came, | 60 |
| And flowing through the silent air | |
| Creation fluttered in a prayer | |
| Descending on a spiral stair, | |
| And calling me by name. | |
| |
| It nestled in my dreaming eyes | 65 |
| Like heaven in a lake, | |
| And softened hope into surprise | |
| For very beauty’s sake, | |
| And silence blossomed into morn, | |
| Whose fragrant rosy-breasted dawn | 70 |
| Could scarcely bear to break. | |
| |
| I sang into the morning light | |
| As loud as I could sing, | |
| The treetops bowed in sheer delight | |
| Before the slanting wing. | 75 |
| And all the songs of little birds | |
| Who laughed and cried in silver words | |
| Adored the Risen Spring. | |
| |
