Eden Eclipsed

On the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

I look for him the way he went
among the mists of dawn
when night gives birth to virgin light
and gilds the alien corn

I see him not and yet I know
he dwells within this sphere
His every gesture's melt and phrase
in others whispers here

We lost him once, in boyhood's rise
amid the journey's crowd
Our thoughts and wild assumptions
did heaven's vision cloud

So humbly did he bend his will
to exalt Cana's wine
A prompting Spirit turned his heart
and imaged the divine

I cannot tell, for words are vain
how absence fires strange joy
It burns away the wasting world
and strips the sly alloy

The light grows dim and human form
dwells in a shadow land
but yet its lucent nimbus tells
the Kingdom is at hand

And so I rise at dayspring's hint
and sift the shifting mists
for one familiar countenance
by realms of glory blessed

My feet imprint the Garden dew
loosen from earth's tether
Upborne on wings of bliss I cleave
the radiant ether

The flesh recedes, horizons clear
consume my being's see
Now is the time! My Love revealed
with arms stretched wide for me!