I did not say to her: -
"You are my love."
At the dance
I stood in the corner among the cynics
Passing unkind comments
Obscurely witty
That loud, loud
Echoed in the Empty Place
She danced
I said: - "Oh that's Pavlova!"
And all the awkward-footed wallflowers
Laughed wildly:
They thought Pavlova was
Someone not good
I heard her laugh
The sharp high laugh that does not rise
From hearts love-satisfied
And so awoke in me
A little spire of light -
Hope.
"She'll come she'll come" was lit
High on the sensitive thorn, as a flower.
"She'll come she'll come
In lonely storms to you she'll come,
She'll fall for you, she'll fall for you
As you have fallen for her."
Said Reason: "She's indifferent,
Has not care
For you any more than your savage companions
Babbling there."
But I answered Reason
I said: -
"You cannot put love in a frame
Love is not of the head
I shall listen to what my heart says
And to hell with your breed
And your creed
And your frost-bitten ways."
The heart is right -
No man has trained the flame of love
To patterns of utility.
She came to me
So for all men is love
A heady lie
So do all men meet love -
A passer-by.
A few steps past
But not beyond the ring
Of inner truth
And faery reasoning.
Mind is a poor scholar
O blind Mind
When is spun your chilly firmament
Souls nothing find
And love, love-flame
In a dark cell
Makes fuel of firmaments
And dims out Hell.
