Two poems

I There was no sound yet our heads lifted There was no sound (you too could have sworn)

Neither step nor call or even upon air a petal's fall

Nothing - nothing was there at all

And yet, suddenly our heads lifted

And what so nearly had trembled aloud

(The irrevocable words on illicit ground)

Was, by the merest breath, withheld

And nobody else - among all those

Who knew us then - was ever to know

How a winged sentry (just in time)

Had thrust his sword between me and you

II Do I, upward peering, see Star in sky

afar, afar? Or are we interplayed in me, Star and I?

Do I follow bird in flight From earthplot here

apart, apart? Or is this very span of sight Bird's hemisphere?

And there, that blowing summer flower, Does it abound

removed, without? Or, beyond transient bloom, appear As I am found?

O bird and star! O flower in grass! If in the seer

dwells the seen, Then where must abide my beingness - As I here

Gaze about - if not within That One from whom

all universe Has singly sprung? Where else to shine? To fly? To bloom?

Bird, star, flower, I.