renascence - the final chapter

I typed this on my Art Blog by mistake - I am
still not used to having both of them.

sorry about that


i ceased and through the breathless hush
that answered me the far-off rush
of  herald wings came whispering
like music down the vibrant string
of my ascending prayer and - crash
before the wild wind's whistling lash
the startled storm-clouds reared on high
and plunged in terror down the sky
and the big rain in one black wave
fell from the sky and struck my grave
i know not how such things can be
i ony know there came to me
a fragrance such as never clings
to aught save happy living things
a sound as of some joyous elf
singing sweet songs to please himself
and through and over everything
a sense of glad awakening
the grass a-tiptoe at my ear
whispering to me i could hear
i felt the rain's cool finger-tips
brushed tenderly across my lips
laid gently on my sealed sight
and all at once the heavy night
fell from my eyes and i could see -
a drenched and dripping apple-tree
a last long line of silver rain
a sky grown clear and blue again
and as i looked a quickening gust
of wind blew up to me and thrust
into my face a miracle
of orchard-breath and with the smell
i know not how such things can be!-
i breathed my soul back into me
ah! up then from the ground sprang i
and hailed the earth with such a cry
as is not heard save from a man
who has been dead and lives again.

about the trees my arms i wound
like on gone mad i hugged the ground
i raised my quivering arms on high
i laughed and laughed into the sky
till at my throat a strangling sob
caught fiercely and a great heart-throb
sent instant tears into my eyes
o God i cried no dark disguise
can e'er hereafter hide from me
they radiant identity!
thou canstnot move across the grass
but my quick eyes will see Thee pass
nor speak however silently
but my hushed voice will answer Thee
i know the path that tells Thy way
Through the cool eve of every day
God i can push the grass apart
and lay my finger on Thy heart!

the world stands out on either side
no wider than the heart is wide
above the world is stretched the sky -
no highter than the soul is high
the heart can split the sky in two
and let theface of God shine through
but East and West will pinch the heart
that can not keep them pushed apart
and he whose Soul is flat - the sky
Will Cave In On Him By And By.