For Mary Helen

Flowered Paths of Light

We walked among the vast cathedral trees

Exulting in the warm and languorous day,

Aware of fragile moments such as these

While winter holds the world within its sway.

We watched the willow's green exuberance

The early iris thrusting through the soil

And wondered at the wizardry of chance

That moves with us through birth and death and toil.

We wandered upon ways we hardly knew

Mid sleeping ferns and lively daffodils

And though our days remaining might be few

A concentrated joy our being fills.

For we have loved and we have lived, and more,

Have trod these flowered paths of light before.