Thorn Piece

Cliffs,
Cliffs,

And a twisted sea

Beating under a freezing moon.
Why should I,

Sitting peaceful and warm,

Cut my heart on so sharp a tune?

Liquid lapping of seething fire
Eating the heart of an old beech-tree.
Crack of icicles under the eaves,

Dog-wind whining eerily.

The oaks are red, and the asters flame,
And the sun is warm on bark and stones.
There's a Hunter's Moon abroad to-night --

The twigs are snapping like brittle bones.

You carry a lantern of rose-green glass,
Your dress is red as a Cardinal's cloak.
I kneel at the trace of your feet on the grass,

But when I would sing you a song, I choke.

Choke for the fragile careless years
We have scattered so easily from our hands.
They flutter like leaves through an Autumn sun,

One by one, one by one.

I have lived in a place,

I shall die in a place,

I have no craving for distant lands.
But a place is nothing, not even space,

Unless at its heart a figure stands

Swinging a rose-green lantern for me.

I fear the fall of a rose-green gate,
And the cry of a cliff-driven, haunted sea,

And the crackle of ice while I wait -- wait!

Your face is flowers and singing sun,
Your hands are the cool of waters falling.
If the rose-green bars should drop between

Would you know that I was calling?

For the stars I see in that sky are black.
The kind earth holds me and laughs in my ear.
I have nothing to do with the planet's track,

I only want you, my Dear.

Beyond is a glaze, but here is fire,
And love to comfort, and speech to bind,
And the common things of morning and evening,

And the light of your lantern I always find.

One or the other -- then let it be me,
For I fear the whirl of the cliff-wrung sea,
And the biting night. You smile at my fears,
But the years -- years --

Like leaves falling.