Margaret Widdemer Poems

I have shut my little sister in from life and light
(For a rose, for a ribbon, for a wreath across my hair),
...

WHEN I was a young girl, all in a green arbor,
When I was a young girl in Springtimes gone by
...

Ours is a dark Easter-tide,
And a scarlet Spring,
But high up at Heaven-Gate
All the saints sing,
...

The War-god wakened drowsily;
There were gold chains about his hands.
He said: 'And who shall reap my lands
And bear the tithes to Death for me?
...

CROSSING through Heaven's doors,
If Heaven may be for me,
I shall not seek gold floors
Nor jasper wall nor sea;
...

MY feet have touched the Dancing Water,
My lips have kissed the Singing Rose
And I was born a swan-girl's daughter . . .
...

DONE with the Spring's unrest and gleam,
The summer's toil and rich unrest,
With nothing left to seek or keep
...

Under dusky laurel leaf,
Scarlet leaf of rose,
I lie prone, who have known
All a woman knows.
...

ONCE when all the Spring was wild,
All the leaves dew-pearled,
Once I met Happiness,
Singing down the world.
...

St. Jeanne she sat with Michaël,
With Marguerite and Raphaël,
And all the saints who sent her forth a many years ago,
...