One tree in my garden, one tree
Out of all the forests of the world:
One little ship afloat upon the sea,
One shell beneath the waves, flawless and pearled:
One rose on my bower, one rose
For a day to scatter on the grass:
One shifting star agleam where the wind blows,
One gem upheld, that all may share who pass:
One heart to be ached for, one heart
Out of all the bosoms that are here:
One fragile hope alive, the starver's part,
One joy already faint and pale with fear:
One flame in the darkness, one flame
[71] For the night to sever with a breath:
One poor faith fettered to a mortal name—
And over all, the beating wings of death....
Treasures of Poverty[ToC]
I sometimes watch the lips of other women
And think of all the kisses they have known;
I sometimes touch the hands of other women
In wonder at the memoried palms they own....
The kiss upon my brow was sadly given,
The hands I held but once were not my own;
And yet I would not change what I was given
For all the kisses I have never known....
Nor would I change again my heart's white desert;
O wondrous are the meetings I have known,
And strange the eyes that seek me in the desert,
Then smiling vanish to rejoin their own....