I Give Thanks

There’s one that I once loved so much   I am no more the same. I give thanks for that transforming touch.   I tell you not his name. He has become a sign to me   For flowers and for fire. For song he is a sign to me   And for the broken lyre. And I have known him in a book   And never touched his hand. And he is dead—I need not took   For him through his green land. Heaven may not be. I have no faith,   But this desire I have— To take my soul on my last breath,   To lift it like a wave, And surge unto his star and say,   His friendship had been heaven; And pray, for clouds that closed his day   May light at last be given! And say, he shone at noon so bright   I learned to run and rejoice! And beg him for one last delight—   The true sound of his voice. There’s one that once moved me so much   I am no more the same; And I pray I too, I too, may touch   Some heart with singing flame.