My period had come for Prayer - No other Art - would do - My Tactics missed a rudiment - Creator - Was it you? God grows above - so those who pray Horizons - must ascend - And so I stepped upon the North To see this Curious Friend - His House was not - no sign had He - By Chimney - nor by Door - Could I infer his Residence - Vast Prairies of Air Unbroken by a Settler - Were all that I could see - Infinitude - Had'st Thou no Face That I might look on Thee? The Silence condescended - Creation stopped - for me - But awed beyond my errand - I worshipped - did not "pray" - ___ I pay - in Satin Cash - You did not state - your price - A Petal, for a Paragraph It near as I can guess - ___ One Anguish - in a Crowd - A minor thing - it sounds - And yet, unto the single Doe Attempted - of the Hounds 'Tis Terror as consummate As Legions of Alarm Did leap, full flanked, upon the Host - 'Tis Units - make the Swarm - A small Leech - on the Vitals - The sliver, in the Lung - A leakage in an Artery - Are scarce accounted - Harms - But mighty - by relation To that Repealless thing - A Being - impotent to stop - When once it has begun - ___ 'Tis not that Dying hurts us so - 'Tis Living - hurts us more - But Dying - is a different way - A kind behind the Door - The Southern Custom - of the Bird - That ere the Frosts are due - Accepts a better Latitude - We - are the Birds - that stay. The Shiverers round Farmer's doors - For whose reluctant Crumb - We stipulate - till pitying Snows Persuade our Feathers Home. ___ A Dying Tiger - moaned for Drink - I hunted all the Sand - I caught the Dripping of a Rock And bore it in my Hand - His Mighty Balls - in death were thick - But searching - I could see A Vision on the Retina Of Water - and of me - 'Twas not my blame - who sped too slow - 'Twas not his blame - who died While I was reaching him - But 'twas - the fact that He was dead - ___ He gave away his Life - To Us - Gigantic Sum - A trifle - in his own esteem - But magnified - by Fame - Until it burst the Hearts That fancied they could hold - When swift it slipped it's limit - And on the Heavens - unrolled - 'Tis Ours - to wince - and weep - And wonder - and decay By Blossoms gradual process - He chose - Maturity - And quickening - as we sowed - Just obviated Bud - And when We turned to note the Growth - Broke - perfect - from the Pod - ___ We learned the Whole of Love - The Alphabet - the Words - A Chapter - then the mighty Book - Then - Revelation closed - But in each Other's eyes An Ignorance beheld - Diviner than the Childhood's And each to each, a Child - Attempted to expound What neither - understood - Alas, that Wisdom is so large - And Truth - so manifold! ___ When I count the seeds That are sown beneath - To bloom so, bye and bye - When I con the people Lain so low - To be received as high - When I believe the garden Mortal shall not see - Pick by faith it's blossom And avoid it's Bee, I can spare this summer - unreluctantly. ___ I reckon - When I count it all - First - Poets - Then the Sun - Then Summer - Then the Heaven of God - And then - the List is done - But, looking back - the First so seems To Comprehend the Whole - The Others look a needless Show - So I write - Poets - All - Their Summer - lasts a Solid Year - They can afford a Sun The East - would deem extravagant - And if the final Heaven - Be Beautiful as they Disclose To Those who worship Them - It is too difficult a Grace - For justify the Dream - ___ How many Flowers fail in Wood - Or perish from the Hill - Without the privilege to know That they are Beautiful - How many cast a nameless Pod Upon the nearest Breeze - Unconscious of the Scarlet Freight - It bear to other eyes - ___ It might be lonelier Without the Loneliness - I'm so accustomed to my Fate - Perhaps the Other - Peace - Would interrupt the Dark - And crowd the little Room - Too scant - by Cubits - to contain The Sacrament - of Him - I am not used to Hope - It might intrude upon - It's sweet parade - blaspheme the place - Ordained to Suffering - It might be easier To fail - with Land in Sight - Than gain - My Blue Peninsula - To perish - of Delight - ___ Some - Work for Immortality - The Chiefer part, for Time - He - Compensates - immediately - The former - Checks - on Fame - Slow Gold - but Everlasting - The Bullion of Today - Contrasted with the Currency Of Immortality - A Beggar - Here and There - Is gifted to discern Beyond the Broker's insight - One's - Money - One's - the Mine - ___ I could die - to know - 'Tis a trifling knowledge - News-Boys salute the Door - Carts - joggle by - Morning's bold face - stares in the window - Were but mine - the Charter of the least Fly - Houses hunch the House With their Brick Shoulders - Coals - from a Rolling Load - rattle - how - near - To the very Square - His foot is passing - Possibly, this moment - While I - dream - Here - ___ Must be a Wo - A loss or so - To bend the eye Best Beauty's way - But - once aslant It notes Delight As clarified As Stalactite - A Common Bliss Were had for less - The price - is Even as the Grace - Our Lord - thought no Extravagance To pay - a Cross - ___ Delight - becomes pictorial - When viewed through Pain - More fair - because impossible That any gain - The Mountain - at a given distance - In Amber - lies - Approached - the Amber flits - a little - And That's - the Skies - ___ If What we Could - were what we would - Criterion - be small - It is the Ultimate of Talk - The Impotence to Tell - ___ The Test of Love - is Death - Our Lord - "so loved" - it saith - What Largest Lover - hath Another - doth - If smaller Patience - be - Through less Infinity - If Bravo, sometimes swerve - Through fainter Nerve - Accept it's Most - And overlook - the Dust - Last - Least - The Cross' - Request - ___ My first well Day - since many ill - I asked to go abroad, And take the Sunshine in my hands And see the things in Pod - A'blossom just - when I went in To take my Chance with pain - Uncertain if myself, or He, Should prove the strongest One. The Summer deepened, while we strove - She put some flowers away - And Redder cheeked Ones - in their stead - A fond - illusive way - To cheat Herself, it seemed she tried - As if before a Child To fade - Tomorrow - Rainbows held The Sepulchre, could hide. She dealt a fashion to the Nut - She tied the Hoods to Seeds - She dropped bright scraps of Tint, about - And left Brazilian Threads On every shoulder that she met - Then both her Hands of Haze Put up - to hide her parting Grace From our unfitted eyes - My loss, by sickness - Was it Loss? Or that Ethereal Gain One earns by measuring the Grave - Then - measuring the Sun - ___ For largest Woman's Hearth I knew - 'Tis little I can do - And yet the largest Woman's Heart Could hold an Arrow - too - And so, instructed by my own, I tenderer, turn me to. ___ Unit, like Death, for Whom? True, like the Tomb, Who tells no secret Told to Him - The Grave is strict - Tickets admit Just two - the Bearer - And the Borne - And seat - just One - The Living - tell - The Dying - but a syllable - The Coy Dead - None - No Chatter - here - no tea - So Babbler, and Bohea - stay there - But Gravity - and Expectation - and Fear - A tremor just, that all's not sure. ___ "Heaven" has different Signs - to me - Sometimes, I think that Noon Is but a symbol of the Place - And when again, at Dawn, A mighty look runs round the World And settles in the Hills - An Awe if it should be like that Upon the Ignorance steals - The Orchard, when the Sun is on - The Triumph of the Birds When they together Victory make - Some Carnivals of Clouds - The Rapture of a finished Day Returning to the West - All these - remind us of the place That Men call "Paradise" - Itself be fairer - we suppose - But how Ourself, shall be Adorned, for a Superior Grace - Not yet, our eyes can see - ___ They dropped like Flakes - They dropped like Stars - Like Petals from a Rose - When suddenly across the June A Wind with fingers - goes - They perished in the seamless Grass - No eye could find the place - But God can summon every face On his Repealless - List. ___ I prayed, at first, a little Girl, Because they told me to - But stopped, when qualified to guess How prayer would feel - to me - If I believed God looked around, Each time my Childish eye Fixed full, and steady, on his own In Childish honesty - And told him what I'd like, today, And parts of his far plan That baffled me - The mingled side Of his Divinity - And often since, in Danger, I count the force 'twould be To have a God so strong as that To hold my life for me Till I could Catch my Balance That slips so easy, now, It takes me all the while to poise - And then - it does'nt stay - ___