Celestial Bird

O sweet and luminous Bird,
Having once renounced Your call, lovely and shy
I shall hunger for the finished word.
Across the windy sky

Of all voiced longing and all music heard.
I spread my net for Your bewildering wings,
But wings are wiser than the swiftest hands.
Where a bird sings

I hold my heart, in fear that it would break.
I called you through the grief of whip-poor-wills,
I watched you on the avenues that make
A radiant city on the western hills.

Yet since I knew you not, I sought in vain.
I called You beauty for its fleet white sound
But now in my illumined heart
I can release the hound


Of love upon whose bruising lease I strain.
Oh, he will grasp You where you skim the sod,
nor would Your breast, for love is soft as death,
Swifter than beauty is, and strong as God.

Copyright permission to publish has been given by the
Carmel of the Mother of God, Pewaukee Wisconsin. All rights reserved.

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