From Far-Off Worlds, Now I Am Come For You

From Far-Off Worlds, now I am come for you, Across the ages, and across all time… Behind the Sun, we first did pledge, and I’m… Impatient as a crocus for the New Dawn and the coming of Pure Light Then, will I finally hold you in my arms? (And, holding, keep you sealed off from all harms?) That Promise has dwelt always in my Sight! Exploding Joy now thunders through my heart, Yet, like a brooding artist, I do wait To find an unspoiled color, once storms abate, Expressing your soft cheek with grace, not ‘art’… Through fastnesses, high crags, heaths, I have sought The ebbing flow of light from your bright breast When I dreamed waves, the waves were at the crest And whether I was ready… it mattered not! For you were always there, and called to me, In softness or in strength, you always called, And I responding, soared toward you, enthralled! For you were once there with me, by the sea... In Ancient Wu, we pledged Love to the sky As a distant sail that moved across the calm That we would ever be to each, the balm That heals the emptiness… thus you and I Did promise when we met at last, this time And separation’s bane, we did erase Below the cherry blossoms, did embrace Did promise that our Love would higher climb But humans can but promise for a season, And then, comes Azrael*, to take away Togetherness, but still he cannot slay That Love that burns beyond the reach of reason! So, I am coming to you from below, And will assail the vault with my bright cries, And hold your Image e’er before my eyes And seal my steps in the sunrise’s bright glow. _______________ *Azrael – in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem of that name, the Angel of Death