Seraph my soul’s content More longed than desert well Deep though I drink thee, still Returns my exquisite want.
Nor will I dread my thirst Drain all or pass away: Before the spring is dry The lip may well be dust.
Music and the Heart run hand in hand Naked over the shining sand,
My love and I in all agree As one, save this thing only:
In the summit song of youth A quiet quick catch of the breath.
Seraph my soul’s content More longed than desert well
Alone to walk the dripping woods of spring While daisies spy you?
‘All things are flux: there’s nothing fast,’ Said Heraclitus, ages past,
Come death suddenly from the sea or cloud, With the blast of thunder and the blinding shroud,
My little son, whose face I never saw, Who could not wait to bless your father ’s eyes
Part of me for ever is the January morning Coming into the Clyde in the frosty moonlight
Above the great ship’s lifting bow I watch the Pole Star nightly stand,
Sweet solitude, my supple slave, Delicious concubine
Dark sea dark land lie close beneath The muffling guilt of night,
My nine-hours son, so wrinkle-faced Wry concentration of distaste To find your Person so displaced,
The sun like a centaur leaping the ranges Shoots to the heart my garden, shatters The dew in a volley of wild carillons
You are late coming home To the house we share An audible silence Chills the air
My love, I watch you thread your way, and turn with a small timeless smile, and trail your trolley unhurried through the gate of no return.
My dearest love, at seventy-nine You’re not, and never have been, mine.
My dearest love, where’er you are, just through that door, beyond that star,
Spring, at a bound. Once more the colourful chorus, Daffodils first declare their lyric yellow,
… obliterating in instant mini-time a universe of suns and planets with or without their myriad forms of life,
Down arches of the years I hear your voice explaining serials of our late departures,
Six years since your last birthday in our midst seems yesterday, in this same so-loved house,
For ever is the promise. I will trust To share with you the same light and same dust.
Wrapped in my gown of self-regard sublime I heard your voice arrive from outer space.
Knowing the time was short Yours was the instant thought ‘Let’s go up to the Rocks!’
Ten years since that incalculable day When from all worlds we know you slipped away
