Burning tree upon the hill
and burning tree within my heart,
what kinship stands between the two,
...
Within the hollow wave there lies a world,
gleaming glass-perfect, rising to be hurled
into a thousand fragments on the sand,
...
Already I have shed the leaves of youth,
stripped by the wind of time down to the truth
of winter branches. Linear and alone
...
Here sits the Unicorn
In captivity;
His bright invulnerability
...
Anne Morrow Lindbergh (née Anne Spencer Morrow; June 22, 1906 – February 7, 2001) was an American author, aviator, and the spouse of fellow aviator Charles Lindbergh. She was an acclaimed author whose books and articles spanned the genres of poetry to non-fiction, touching upon topics as diverse as youth and age; love and marriage; peace, solitude and contentment, as well as the role of women in the 20th century. Lindbergh's Gift from the Sea stands as a seminal work in feminist literature.)
Interior Tree
Burning tree upon the hill
and burning tree within my heart,
what kinship stands between the two,
what cord I cannot tear apart?
The passionate gust that sets one free,
- a flock of leaves in sudden flight -
shatters the bright interior tree
into a shower of splintered light.
Fused moments of felicity,
when flame and I and heart unite,
come they from earth, or can they be
the swallows of eternity?
One can never pay in gratitude; one can only pay "in kind" somewhere else in life.
There are no signposts in the sky to show a man has passed that way before. There are no channels marked. The flier breaks each second into new uncharted seas.