The Lover

The unstained gold grows light in my heart

A burning unexpected largeness

High gifts of adoring the world

 

For frequent tears have run and sold

The brilliant colors of my life

To serve and be trampled by

 

The lips that renunciate in sighing years

The giving of the salt that is mine to give

Beloved, life is unjust for the counted lovers

 

For love’s own sake is not immortal

In one mortal body for love’s own sake

The rainbow temple of my heart thirsts always

 

Leaping across the equal fields of lives

I am not all unworthy, these pale cheeks

They bear the burden of a hundred hearts.