Classic Poem

Flowers of mist and silence
Stay when the blown mists fade,
Between the shadowed ridges,
In this wind-haunted glade
Of silver, blue and jade.

White flame against the silver,
White shadow on the blue,
Above the jade a vision
Of bloom and wind and dew,
The yucca stands in view.

It reaches to the distance
That ends against a cloud
Of silver in the valley,
Lonely, aloof and proud,
Where footsteps seem too loud …

Something there is within us
Like yucca in this sand.
At times aloof and lonely
It takes a shadowy stand
That shames a groping hand.