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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TWO MARRIED, by                    
First Line: Do you remember how we came that day
Last Line: And life itself is one more certainty.
Alternate Author Name(s): Bower, W. M., Mrs.
Subject(s): Love; Love - Loss Of; Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


THE HEIGHTS

Do you remember how we came that day,
Breathless with love, unto a hill and stood,
My lips athirst to drink the wine of play,
Before I must fulfill my womanhood?
Your hand on mine was sudden secret fire,
It promised wonder, fear and ecstasy;
Our dreams were high and white as stars, yea higher --
They were the hope of things we shall not see.

Do you recall how, even going down,
Our spirits seemed to soar? The dusk that came
And hung a cold gray silence on the town,
For us was leaping glory and a flame.
You drew me close, your hands caressed my head;
And "All our days shall be as this," you said.

DESCENT

Sometimes that promised glory haunts my sleep,
Who all day long in dull monotony
Traverse with you the common days and keep
The steady pace your footsteps set for me.
Above the deadly level of our lives,
Somewhere, I know, are other heights to climb;
But all the little tasks of husbands, wives,
Forbid the quest -- we no more have the time.

I fear, I fear sometimes when nights are still,
That something in my heart will rise and break.
I dare not look too long upon a hill,
Or think on beauty, sleeping or awake --
Lest you should find me some tempestuous June,
Crying my mad white hunger to the moon.

FLIGHT

All night between my dreams the thought of you
Was daybreak falling from a green-gold tree,
Was beauty mirrored in a drop of dew.
It woke an old, old urge; it troubled me.
Somewhile before the dawn I left your bed,
Nor bound the soft confusion of my hair,
More still than silence from your side I fled --
You, dreaming of a desk, an easy chair.

The world was waking wonder where I ran,
Gray pools of shadow leapt beneath my feet;
And at the dawn's edge, where the woods began,
I found you waiting, eager and most sweet --
Your laughter sunlight, and the wind your kiss.
Long in the woods I drank remembered bliss.

CERTAINTIES

My heart is young -- the breath of blowing trees
Is more than all the wisdom I have known.
How shall I hedge myself with certainties:
A dinner gong, the mail, a telephone?
How shall I move among these common things
And decently observe my household rites,
When love is calling, calling for its wings,
When all my heart is thirsting for the heights?

When we are dust, these daily tasks will move
As well without us. Dear, how soon, how soon
We have forgotten what it is to love!
The moon, that was high hope, is just the moon,
The stars are stars; no wonder stirs a tree.
And life itself is one more certainty.





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