Ina D. Coolbrith Poems

O foolish wisdom sought in books!
O aimless fret of household tasks!
O chains that bind the hand and mind-
A fuller life my spirit asks.
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O Mother Earth, how couldst thou let him go?
Thy son, whose every touch was a caress
To blossom into all of loveliness-
This gentle son of thine who loved thee so!
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A pearl-foam at his feet
The waters leap and fall;
The sentry treads his beat
Upon the sun-girt wall.
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“And love will stay-a summer’s day! ”
A long wave rippled up the strand;
She flashed a white hand through the spray,
And plucked a sea-shell form the sand.
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Dawn on the fills, and in the quickening skies
In flooding splendor lies!
Primrose and daffodil, in shifting light,
Cresting the cresting height,
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O soul! However sweet
The goal to which I hasten with swift feet-
If, just within my grasp,
I reach, and joy to clasp,
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It befell me on a day-
Long ago; ah, long ago!
When my life was in its May,
In the May-month of the year.
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The World sweeps by! It is the end of Time!
Nay, not the end, for Time can have no end:
A cycle of the illimitable chain
That makes the circle Eternity.
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