Classic Poem

In the tree the sap, in the earth the bursting seed,
In laughter keynotes of grief, in sorrow veins pulsing with joy,
In the passing the eternal, in the eternal the passing,
Ever in things hearts of things
In you are lives more than lives of great cities,
In you are crowding populations asking that you give them freedom,
In you are tragedies every day and gentle love-dreams filling the skies with light,
I reach for them with open heart:
O they come to me, I am filled!
And I give you of myself the myriad dream-children gamboling on shores of immortal seas,
Therefrom we have eaten one feast,
Therefore is love hastened judgment delayed.

I go from door to door,
Now I am invited to enter, again I am rejected,
Now I catch a glimpse through a half opened window,
Now an imprisoned face greets me, smiles, appeals,
Now I find an unclosed threshold: O rare threshold!
But in the main, from mornings to nights, footsore, I go unrewarded, knocking at many a lattice, love within making no sign,
Yet never losing heart, never doubting the love of those who refuse me,
Knowing that in the lapse of mortal days —
Days — O days! — receding and returning waves! —
All doors, windows, will be freely thrown open, celebrating my welcome,
On every doorsill a lover waiting.