Challenge Part 4

I am no longer the masterful lover Storming my way to the shrine of your heart; Reckless with youth and the zest to discover All that the world sets apart.

I am no longer Wiser and stronger; No longer I shout in the face of the world; No longer my challenge is sounded and hurled With such fury that even the heavens must hear it.

No longer I mount on a pa.s.sionate flood-- Something has changed my arrogant spirit, Something has left my braggart blood.

Something has left me--something has entered in-- Something I knew not, something beyond my desire.

Deeper and gentler I hold you; all that has been Seems like a spark that is lost in a forest of fire.

Minor my song is, for still the old memories burn-- Only in you and your thought do I find my release...

I have done with the bl.u.s.tering airs, and I turn From the clamorous strife to the greater heroics of peace.

_Take me again Out of the cries and alarms All of the tumult is vain...

Here in your arms._

Hold me again-- Oft have we wandered apart; Now it is all made plain...

Here in your heart.

Heal me again-- Cleanse me with tears that remove Pain and the ruins of pain...

Here in your love.

Minor my song was--abashed I must lower my voice; Something has touched me with n.o.bler and holier fire; Something that thrills, as when trumpets and children rejoice; Something I knew not, something beyond my desire...

Minor no longer--the sighing and droning depart; In a chorus of triumph the jubilant spirits increase-- Shelter and spur me forever in the merciful strength of your heart, You who have soothed me with pa.s.sion and roused me with pa.s.sionate peace.

LEAVING THE HARBOR

At last the great, red sun sank low, An evil, blood-shot eye, And cooling airs sprang up to blow The sea that challenged, glow for glow, The angry face of the sky.

Still burned the streets we had left behind, Where, tortured and broken down, The millions scarcely hoped to find A moment's escape from the maddening grind In the terrible furnace of town.

And, blotting out cities, the twilight fell With a single star at seven...

The sea grew wider beneath the spell And the moon, like a broken silver sh.e.l.l, Lay on the sh.o.r.e of heaven.

THE Sh.e.l.l TO THE PEARL

Grow not so fast, glow not so warm; Thy hidden fires burn too wild-- Too perfect is thy rounded form; Cling close, my child.

Be yet my babe, rest quiet when The great sea-urges beat and call; Too soon wilt thou be ripe for men, The world and all.

Thy s.h.i.+ning skin, thy silken sheath, These will undo thee all too soon; And men will fight for thee beneath Some paler moon...

Aye, thou my own, my undefiled, Shalt make the lewd world dream and start, When they have seized and torn thee, child, Out of my heart.

With velvets shall thy bed be laid; A royal captive thou shalt be-- And oh, what prices will be paid To ransom thee.

Thy path shall be a track of gold, Of l.u.s.t, of death and countless crimes; Bought by a sensual world--and sold A thousand times...

And each shall lose thee at the last, Hating, yet still desiring thee...

While I lie, where I have been cast, Back in the sea.

So wait--and, lest the world transform Thy soul and make thee wanton-wild, _Grow not so fast, glow not so warm, Cling close, my child._

THE YOUNG MYSTIC

We sat together close and warm, My little tired boy and I-- Watching across the evening sky The coming of the storm.

No rumblings rose, no thunders crashed, The west-wind scarcely sang aloud; But from a huge and solid cloud The summer lightnings flashed.

And then he whispered "Father, watch; I think G.o.d's going to light His moon--"

"And when, my boy" ... "Oh, very soon-- I saw Him strike a match!"

HEALED

The winds like a pack of hounds Snap at my dragging heels With sudden leapings and playful bounds They urge me out to the greener grounds Where the b.u.t.terfly sinks and the swallow reels Giddy with Spring, with its smells and sounds-- And I go...

For of late I have fretted and sulked, and clung to my books and the house; Lethargic with winter fancies and dulled with a torpid mood-- But now I am called by the gra.s.ses; the rumor of blossoming boughs; The hints of a thousand singers and the ancient thrill of the wood.

For the streets run over with sunlight and spill A glory on bricks and the dustiest sill; And Life, like a great drum, pulses and pounds-- I follow the world and I follow my will, And I go to see what the park reveals When the winds, like a pack of buoyant hounds, Snap at my dragging heels...

Once with the green again How I am changed-- Lo, I have seen again Friends long estranged.

Once more the lyrical Rose-bush and river; Once more the miracle, Greater than ever!

Where is there dulness now-- Rich with new urges Life in its fullness now Surges and purges All that is brash in me-- Sunlight and Song These things will fas.h.i.+on me Splendid and strong.

Splendid and strong I shall grow once again; Joyful and clean as the mind of a child, As tears after pain, Or hearts reconciled, As woods washed with rain, As love in the wild, Or that bird to whom all things but singing is vain.

"Bird, there were songs in your heart just as rapturous As these that you bring-- Why when we longed for your magic to capture us Did you not sing?

Now with the world making music we heed you not.

Coward, for all your fine challenge, we need you not-- We too are brave with the Spring!"

So I sang--but a something was missing; the song and the sunlight were stale, Though a squirrel had sat on my shoulder and sparrows had fed from my hand; Though I heard the white laughter of ripples and the breezes'

faint answering hail, And somewhere a bird's voice I knew not--yet hearing could half understand...

And lo, at my doorstep I saw it; it shouted to me as I came-- It laughed in its simple revealment, a miracle common and wild; Plainly I heard and beheld it, bright as a forest of flame-- And its face was the face of a mother, and its voice was the voice of a child.

THE STIRRUP-CUP

Your eyes--and a thousand stars Leap from the night to aid me; I scale the impossible bars, I laugh at a world that dismayed me.