So soon my body will have gone Beyond the sound and sight of men, And tho' it wakes and suffers now, Its sleep will be unbroken then; But oh, my frail immortal soul That will not sleep forevermore, A leaf borne onward by the blast, A wave that never finds the shore. AFTER DEATH Now while my lips are living Their words must stay unsaid, And will my soul remember To speak when I am dead? Yet if my soul remembered You would not heed it, dear, For now you must not listen, And then you could not hear. TESTAMENT I SAID, "I will take my life And throw it away; I who was fire and song Will turn to clay." "I will lie no more in the night With shaken breath, I will toss my heart in the air To be caught by Death." But out of the night I heard, Like the inland sound of the sea, The hushed and terrible sob Of all humanity. Then I said, "Oh who am I To scorn God to his face? I will bow my head and stay And suffer with my race." GIFTS I GAVE my first love laughter, I gave my second tears, I gave my third love silence Thru all the years. My first love gave me singing, My second eyes to see, But oh, it was my third love Who gave my soul to me. IV FROM THE SEA ALL beauty calls you to me, and you seem, Past twice a thousand miles of shifting sea, To reach me. You are as the wind I breathe Here on the ship's sun-smitten topmost deck, With only light between the heavens and me. I feel your spirit and I close my eyes, Knowing the bright hair blowing in the sun, The eager whisper and the searching eyes. Listen, I love you. Do not turn your face Nor touch me. Only stand and watch awhile The blue unbroken circle of the sea. Look far away and let me ease my heart Of words that beat in it with broken wing. Look far away, and if I say too much, Forget that I am speaking. Only watch, How like a gull that sparkling sinks to rest, The foam-crest drifts along a happy wave Toward the bright verge, the boundary of the world.