Flame and Shadow — V - In a Hospital

Spring Torrents Will it always be like this until I am dead, Every spring must I bear it all again With the first red haze of the budding maple boughs, And the first sweet-smelling rain?

Oh I am like a rock in the rising river Where the flooded water breaks with a low call-- Like a rock that knows the cry of the waters And cannot answer at all.

"I Know the Stars" I know the stars by their names, Aldebaran, Altair, And I know the path they take Up heaven's broad blue stair.

I know the secrets of men By the look of their eyes, Their gray thoughts, their strange thoughts Have made me sad and wise.

But your eyes are dark to me Though they seem to call and call-- I cannot tell if you love me Or do not love me at all.

I know many things, But the years come and go, I shall die not knowing The thing I long to know.

Understanding I understood the rest too well, And all their thoughts have come to be Clear as grey sea-weed in the swell Of a sunny shallow sea.

But you I never understood, Your spirit's secret hides like gold Sunk in a Spanish galleon Ages ago in waters cold.

Nightfall We will never walk again As we used to walk at night, Watching our shadows lengthen Under the gold street-light When the snow was new and white.

We will never walk again Slowly, we two, In spring when the park is sweet With midnight and with dew, And the passers-by are few.

I sit and think of it all, And the blue June twilight dies,-- Down in the clanging square A street-piano cries And stars come out in the skies.

"It Is Not a Word" It is not a word spoken, Few words are said;

Nor even a look of the eyes Nor a bend of the head, But only a hush of the heart That has too much to keep, Only memories waking That sleep so light a sleep.

"My Heart Is Heavy" My heart is heavy with many a song Like ripe fruit bearing down the tree, But I can never give you one-- My songs do not belong to me.

Yet in the evening, in the dusk When moths go to and fro, In the gray hour if the fruit has fallen, Take it, no one will know.

The Nights Remember The days remember and the nights remember The kingly hours that once you made so great, Deep in my heart they lie, hidden in their splendor, Buried like sovereigns in their robes of state.

Let them not wake again, better to lie there, Wrapped in memories, jewelled and arrayed-- Many a ghostly king has waked from death-sleep And found his crown stolen and his throne decayed.

"Let It Be Forgotten" Let it be forgotten, as a flower is forgotten, Forgotten as a fire that once was singing gold, Let it be forgotten for ever and ever, Time is a kind friend, he will make us old.

If anyone asks, say it was forgotten Long and long ago, As a flower, as a fire, as a hushed footfall In a long forgotten snow.

The Dark Cup VI

May Day A delicate fabric of bird song Floats in the air, The smell of wet wild earth Is everywhere.