THE WOMAN

You could hurt and you could heal,

You could hide and still reveal,

You were lilies, lilies and steel.

You the near and you the far

Were as lamplight and a star.

I cannot tell them what you were;

Yet, Death, you have not all of her.

No, I, the passionate nondescript,

Have wine your lips have never sipped,

Have wine of her in my heart's blood

Whom I never understood.

You were tender and benign,

Trusting — and all fire divine

And a constellation's sign.

You the far and you the near,

You heaven high and heaven here,

You the quest, and closest dear.

Ah, God, you have not all of her,

For still my cause she can prefer

Where she goes, and where You were.

You could weep and you could rise

With the Word clear in your eyes,

With a strength beyond the wise.

Girl and goddess, will and love,

Struggling, battling, winged above

Memories I have memory of!