The Moment

The summer day is kind. A breeze
Surrounds me, as if tenderness
Were its invention. Set at ease
With all my selves, I smile and bless
These friends: the leathern sage, the mild
And unambitious aging man,
The rebel boy, the gifted child.

I bring no trophies from the past
And wish for none. The Deathless Four
I was when young have merged at last.
Time was I wanted nothing more.
Reduced to one, a single breath,
The weather breathes me in and out
Till I shall join with it in death.

Bordered by forest palisade
Whose stiffened hemlocks creak and groan,
A clearing keeps me in its shade
Until I come into my own.
The waxwing grass has just the hue
Of glossy hair I loved the most.
That truth, at least, was not untrue.

I gave away what self I had
To love and loyalty. No doubt
What use they made of it was mad.
But could not self be done without?
The breezes curry me as though
Their mind turned on a single breath
To keep me or to let me go.

The sky is higher now. The sun
Has dwindled to a coin of gold.
I cannot hear the river run.
The forest shade has lost its cold.
The weather takes my breath away.
This is the place prepared for me
Where, without menace or decay,
The earth will set my body free.