X

Nay, touch me not, nor even with your eyes

Hold mine, for I would speak you, thus afar,

Aloof and chill and lonely as a star.

The hands that urge, the hungry heart that cries,

Have wrapped my love with love's elusive lies;

The lips that burn have laid a ruddy scar

Against the truth that stands without the bar,

And blinded faith with passion's mysteries.

Night holds a single moon, day one desire —

Her golden sun; and life a love supreme,

Wherein one moment poises, crowned with fire,

White with the naked truth. Beyond control,

‘ Tis here, my Sun, in love's last hour extreme,

I hold aloft my bare, adoring soul.