CHARLES ASHLEIGH BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL (A Mystery Rime for Little Children of All Ages) The rain comes down and veils the hills. Ah, tender rain for aching fields! The hills are clothed in a mist of rain. (My heart is clothed in a mist of pain.) Ah, mother rain, that laves the field, If I to you my poor soul yield, Will you not cleanse it, soothe it, tend it, Weep upon it ’til ’tis mended? ’Twas sweet to sow, ’tis hard to reap. Come, mother rain, and lull me to sleep. Lull me to sleep and wash me away, Out of the realm of Night and Day, Back to the bourne from whence I came, Seeming alike yet not the same.... Rain, you are more than rain to me. And Lash of Pain may be a Key. Ope, then, the door and tread within. The double Door of Good and Sin Is vanquished. Lo, with bread and wine, The table’s spread! The feast is Mine! LOVE IN THE ABYSS Amidst the buzz of bawdy tales And the laughter of drinking men, I sat and laughed and shouted also. Yet was I not content. My seared and restless eyes, turning here and there,— Like my tired soul,— Seeking new joys and finding them not,— How oft swept you unseeing. Until, suddenly,— And now I know not how I could have missed it,— My eyes saw into yours, And plumbed the deep wells of newly born desire. Ah, dear my heart, what things your eyes did speak! Not God’s own music of creation’s dawn, Revealed to mystic in a holy trance, Could pleasure me more sweetly. So dear were your lips— Your lips so kind and regal red. My memory of your lips I cherish As a great possession ... Ah, flying joy, Caught on the wings of Time ... Tender oasis, Ingemmed in a wilderness of grey! Kisses, kisses,— Kisses upon your red lips in the black night ... When, alone in the long, quiet street, By the door of the tavern, Shielded from sight of those within, The soft rain falling on our heads like a mother’s blessing,— We bartered the clinging kisses of new desire. And, as I held you to me, The whole universe Became informed of God, And lay within my arms. JEALOUSY You are possessed by another. How I hate him! Hear the rational people say: “Jealousy is a primitive thing. A thing of the emotions; not of reason.” Fools! You do not know scarlet desire, full-flooded! Ah, my dearest, Graal of my heart’s longing, Your stolen kiss is fresh upon my neck. My lips are full of my secret kiss upon your neck. You are with another, whom I hate; whom I like well for himself, but hate because he possesses you ... Your possessor is old and ugly; He can not love you as I can. I can pour out for you the scented treasures of my young love. Dear night of hope, when you gave me the whispered promise to come to me ... Stealthy was I and cunning. Friendly and attentive was I to your old lover (if lover he may be called, who is almost incapable of love). And, all the time, I was scheming for you. When the old man was away for an instant— Oh, golden moment,— I poured my whispered passion into your ears. When he looked away, or, for a moment, was distracted, with swift undertones I declared myself to you. How dear was your welcoming glance and your quickly toned assent! You had a face so proud. So quiet and poised among the throng. Yet, for once, you gave me your eyes and, in so doing, gave me your priceless body and warm, comradely soul. Ah, flash of answering love that transformed your face! As a jewel of my memory’s treasure-casket may it be preserved. When the drinking-place was closed, we walked along the dark street. Do you remember? We were four, luckily, and the old man was kept busy in conversation, half drunken as he was. And we, with our secret between us, walked behind. Our hands were tight clasped in the folds of our dress. Tight clasped with the clinging hand caress; you and I trying to put into our hands all the longing that was in us. All the time we were apprehensive of a sudden turning of the old man or the other ... Then, the whispered troth, and the meeting-place appointed. And, then, later, boldly, so openly and audaciously it brought no suspicion, Under seeming of wine-induced jollity, we kissed. And they laughed; it seemed a trivial jest to them. But to us it was a sacrament. But, best of all, my beloved, was the hurried clasping and kissing when we were alone in the dark. Promise of joy to come. Foretaste of the coming ecstasy. And then we had to part. I and my unaware friend. You and the old man. As I walked home that night, How I hated him! How I looked up at the pale-golden moon high-hung in the purple sky, and sang in my heart your praise and cursed in my heart your possessor ... Young I am and young are you and the Law of Life bids us mate. And a whole world standing between us would be melted and destroyed by the fire of our youth’s desire. THE GLORIOUS ADVENTURE OF GLORIOUS ME I swim with the tide of life towards the new; I reach out hungered arms to flowing change.— I smash the awesome totems of my kind; My smarting vision bursts its cramping range. A thousand voices yell within my soul; A thousand hymns are chanting in my heart.— I blast the mist of worlds and years apart; I sense the blending glory of the whole. The sap of flowers and trees, it mounts in me. I feel the child within me cry and turn; The crimson thoughts within me writhe and burn.— I stand, with craving arms high-flung, before the rimless sea. And every whirling, passionate star sings melodies to Me; And every bud and every leaf has sought my private ear; And to the quickening soul of Me has told its mystery, As I sit in state in the heart of the world, As I proudly hug the core of the world, As I make me a boat of the whole, wide world ... And then for new worlds steer.
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