Ina D. Coolbrith Poems

I
At Bethlehem
Shepherds, what of the night?
‘Dark, dark and cold;
...

(Song)
The night wind in its passing
Sweeps the blossoms of the tree,
And fragrance, like a melody,
...

Nay, then, what can be done
When love is flown,
When love has passed away?
Sit in the twilight gray,
...

Not yet from the yellow west,
Fade, light of the autumn day;
Far lies my haven of rest,
And rough the way.
...

The summer-rose is dead;
The sad leaves, witherd,
Strew ankle-deep the pathways to our tread.
Dry grasses mat the plain,
...

Poet-Astronomer, who night by night
God’s star-page scanned, yet failed to read aright,
Where throughout space His alphabet of suns
Spells Life, in inextinguishable light!
...

O Melody, what children strange are these
From thy most vast, illimitable realm!
These sounds that seize upon and overwhelm
The soul with shuddering ecstacy! Lo! here
...

Light of the suns and stars of heaven,
The sweet warm air, and the green earth sod,
And birth and death unto all are given,
Children alike of the selfsame God.
...

For you ‘one little song to sing
That deep within your heart
May live, a sweet and sacred thing
From all the world apart.’
...

Hark, from the budding boughs that burst of song!
And where the leagues of emerald stretch away,
Out rings the meadow-lark’s ecstatic lay,
While the green hills the liquid notes prolong.
...