I WANDERED WHERE THE WONDER OF THE SKY——
I wandered where the wonder of the sky
Was wide upon me. Isle beyond isle the east
Was signing that the Summer night had ceased
Upon the dawn. Then came a stranger by
Immersed in the magic as was I.
We stood together at the sorcerer’s feast
Saying half-words; and as the day increased
We parted with a farewell almost shy.
Something was there. There was drawn silently
Through into life some fiery, clouded thing.
O wise
For one sweet flash of time we stood to see
Death and the Inbeing
Lie dreaming in each other’s eyes.
HERE A STILL FIELD
Here a still field. I move within the green,
It lies aloof. Look where I will
The steady glory of noon on the hill
Lays its divine indifference on the scene.
I seem too far. I listen and I lean,
Yet never will the burying hours fulfill
One hope of nearness to the Far and Still,
But wound me with the sweet that they might mean.
Is there no keener speech for us than this
Old incommunicable urge to know
The speech of silence.... Yes—here a still field!
What more—what more? For here the Comrade is,
The God who waits alone and would have sealed
Our compact with glad laughter long ago.
RETURN
How they come back ... I never see retreat
Down the long beach the phalanx of bright foam
But faint across the fields that fold them home
I hear the rhythmic fall of speeding feet.
And they who loved the garden of the sea
And died, come back. I never know a land
Of cities but there come to me
Their dead to touch my hand.
Dead, who dare not let your eyes
Flower from the dusk and flame into our own,
Yet come you as hushed notes in harmonies
To ways of life that you have known:
Virgil in blowing spray round swift-prowed ships,
Dante in every cry of lips for lips.