It was the eyes that first ensnared my sight,
As if through the hazy, gray years were glowing,
Like beacons in my soul’s long wandering night,
So large and luminous, and kind and knowing.
Did I perhaps know her when, as a child,
I looked to someone’s eyes for sympathy,
Perhaps that old woman whose kind eyes smiled,
And now, across the years, stare back at me?
Those lips – what sweet, yet wise words linger there!
What worlds of lovely thought could I explore!
And all that kindred souls can ever share
Seems as suspended there forevermore.
And did some lover, in that soft, white skin
Find heaven in a summer’s warm embrace?
Or when her youth had gone, see from within
Late autumn’s richer beauty in her face?
Oh, how strangely my heart wants hers to be
Forever happy – and forever loved!
Though that beauty whose earthly form I see,
Has gone to live among the stars above.
Had I been born a century ago,
And touched, and been touched by her life somehow
I would have surely loved her, yet I know,
Not with the holy passion I do now.
Daniel is a poet living in Houston, Texas. He has spent much of his life fighting for the ideals of classical culture and poetry. Read more of his poetry and writings on culture. His volume of poetry, compiling over 20 years of composition, is entitled "Voices on the Wind."