Classic Poem

I

The words were beautiful
Before I had read them.
So that my sight went leaping and skipping.
I kissed my name where your hand had written,
I laid my fingers along the edges,
Over the folds your hands had folded, —
I laid my face to the face of my letter.

II

Softly came down and closed in about me
A solitude, a separate world;
In which was no sound or motion or being;
Only the whispering of the paper
Stirring to life in my brain.

III

All day I carried it,
Against me,
Like a bird;
Against my heart where my life is;
Like a secret waiting in my heart.