Page:Poems Jackson.djvu/64

In instant comes the sun and lights
    The ship with fire;
Each mast creeps up to dizzy heights,
    A blazing spire;
One faint "Ahoy," then all in vain
We look; we are alone again.

I have forgotten bells and lights,
    And waves which drank
Their jewels up; those days and nights
    Which rose and sank
Have turned like other pasts, and fled,
And carried with them all their dead.

But every day that fire ship lights
    My distant blue,
And every day glad wonder smites
    My heart anew,
How in that instant each could heed
And hear the other's swift God-speed.

Counting by hours thy days and nights
    In weariness,
O patient soul, on godlike heights
    Of loneliness,
I passed thee by; tears filled our eyes;
The loud winds mocked and drowned our cries.

The hours go by, with bells and lights;
    We sail, we drift;
Our souls in changing tasks and rites,
    Find work and shrift.
But this I pray, and praying know
'Till faith almost to joy can grow.