The years had not sharpened their smooth round faces, I met their eyes and found them mild-- Do they, too, dream of me, I wonder, And for them am I too a child? Redbirds Redbirds, redbirds, Long and long ago, What a honey-call you had In hills I used to know; Redbud, buckberry, Wild plum-tree And proud river sweeping Southward to the sea, Brown and gold in the sun Sparkling far below, Trailing stately round her bluffs Where the poplars grow-- Redbirds, redbirds, Are you singing still As you sang one May day On Saxton's Hill? Sunset: St. Louis Hushed in the smoky haze of summer sunset, When I came home again from far-off places, How many times I saw my western city Dream by her river. Then for an hour the water wore a mantle Of tawny gold and mauve and misted turquoise Under the tall and darkened arches bearing Gray, high-flung bridges. Against the sunset, water-towers and steeples Flickered with fire up the slope to westward, And old warehouses poured their purple shadows Across the levee. High over them the black train swept with thunder, Cleaving the city, leaving far beneath it Wharf-boats moored beside the old side-wheelers Resting in twilight. The Coin Into my heart's treasury I slipped a coin That time cannot take Nor a thief purloin,-- Oh better than the minting Of a gold-crowned king Is the safe-kept memory Of a lovely thing. The Voice Atoms as old as stars, Mutation on mutation, Millions and millions of cells Dividing yet still the same, From air and changing earth, From ancient Eastern rivers, From turquoise tropic seas, Unto myself I came. My spirit like my flesh Sprang from a thousand sources, From cave-man, hunter and shepherd, From Karnak, Cyprus, Rome; The living thoughts in me Spring from dead men and women, Forgotten time out of mind And many as bubbles of foam. Here for a moment's space Into the light out of darkness, I come and they come with me Finding words with my breath; From the wisdom of many life-times I hear them cry: "Forever Seek for Beauty, she only Fights with man against Death!" III Day and Night In Warsaw in Poland Half the world away, The one I love best of all Thought of me to-day; I know, for I went Winged as a bird, In the wide flowing wind His own voice I heard; His arms were round me In a ferny place, I looked in the pool And there was his face-- But now it is night And the cold stars say: "Warsaw in Poland Is half the world away." Compensation I should be glad of loneliness And hours that go on broken wings, A thirsty body, a tired heart And the unchanging ache of things, If I could make a single song As lovely and as full of light, As hushed and brief as a falling star On a winter night. I Remembered