I heard the stars sing low like mothers. He said: "Now look, and help feed others." I looked around, and as close as touch Was everybody that suffered much. They reached out, there was darkness only; They could not see us, they were lonely. I saw the hearts that deaths took hold of, With the wounds bare that were not told of; Hearts with things in them making gashes; Hearts that were choked with their dreams' ashes; Women in front of the rolled-back air, Looking at their breasts and nothing there; Good men wasting and trapped in hells; Hurt lads shivering with the fare-thee-wells. I saw them as if something bound them; I stood there but my heart went round them. I begged him not to let me see them wasted. Says, "Tell them then what you have tasted." Told him I was weak as a rained-on bee; Told him I was lost. -- Says: "Lean on me." Something happened then I could not tell, But I knew I had the water for every hell. Any other thing it was no use bringing; They needed what the stars were singing, What the whole sky sang like waves of light, The tune that it danced to, day and night. Oh, I listened to the sky for the tune to come; The song seemed easy, but I stood there dumb. The stars could feel me reaching through them They let down light and drew me to them. I stood in the sky in a light like day, Drinking in the word that all things say Where the worlds hang growing in clustered shapes Dripping the music like wine from grapes. With "Love, Love, Love," above the pain, -- The vine-like song with its wine-like rain. Through heaven under heaven the song takes root Of the turning, burning, deathless fruit. I came to the earth and the pain so near me, I tried that song but they couldn't hear me. I went down into the ground to grow, A seed for a song that would make men know. Into the ground from my roamer's light I went; he watched me sink to night. Deep in the ground from my human grieving, His pain ploughed in me to believing. Oh, he took earth's pain to be his bride, While the heart of life sang in his side. For I felt that pain, I took its kiss, My heart broke into dust with his. Then sudden through the earth I found life springing; The dust men trampled on was singing. Deep in my dust I felt its tones; The roots of beauty went round my bones. I stirred, I rose like a flame, like a river, I stood on the line, I could sing forever. Love had pierced into my human sheathing, Song came out of me simple as breathing. A freight came by, the line grew colder, He laid his hand upon my shoulder. Says, "Don't stay on the line such nights," And led me by the hand to the station lights. I asked him in front of the station-house wall If he had lodging. Says, "None at all." I pointed to my heart and looked in his face. -- "Here, -- if you haven't got a better place." He looked and he said: "Oh, we still must roam But if you'll keep it open, well, I'll call it `home'."