Treasured Thoughts

If one you loved had tarried 'neath your roof,
And wrought with her sweet fingers many a change,
Would you, when she had left you, disarrange
Her handiwork, the veritable proof
Of her late presence? Nay, for very love
You would not; but in memory would range
Through rooms her dear touch had left sweet and strange,
And nought from where she placed it would remove:

So, when she came into my life's dark ways.
Her soul gave many a saving thought to mine,
And all she gave of her abundant grace,
I treasure in my heart, as most divine!
That if we meet again, in far-off days.
They may be found as offerings on a shrine.