The Earth Turns South/The Radiant

by Clement Richardson Wood

I.
RESTLESS YEARS

THE RADIANT

When this body drifts in dust
Lightly on the nervous air,
Vagabonding everywhere
In this restless planet's crust,

Wet by foam of every sea,
Dancing up the thinning sky
To its terrible and high
Journey through infinity,—

When it softly voyages
Past the outermost lone star,
On to what dim wonders are
In the spaceless distances,

It shall never lose the zest
That is mine by night and day,
As I push my groping way
On life's fogged and clouded quest;

It shall never waste or lose
The illogical delight
That is mine by day and night,
As I steer my chartless cruise;

Or the love that fires me through,
Or the hope that lifts my eyes
Higher than the present skies,
Toward the goal I struggle to.

When this spirit makes its way
Scatteringly further still,
It shall bear the deathless will
That I build—and bear—today!