Beatitudes of Light

I saw beauty burning brightly in her eyes

Immaculate passion tinge her rose-like cheeks,

She spoke in measures of the ancient wise

And carried me to formidable peaks.

Wisdom filled me with each passing glance

Her touch, a lightness in me did wake,

Her voice could take me deep into a trance

And let me love for the Beloved's sake.

All the joy this human heart could hold

And all that comes within the soul's embrace,

Rubies and diamonds and vaults of silver and gold

I saw in the perfection of her face.

And then one morn she softly slipped away

Carried gently in the arms of Death

Departing with the early light of day.

I watched her gentle at the final breath

And held her delicate and stainless feet

But then the pent up tears blinded me

I could not bear her premature retreat

Or follow her soul into eternity.

Sorrow and the fierce domain of night

Held my spirit in its vise-like grip.

I wept until the dimming of the sight,

Until the sorrowed past from me did slip

And I beheld beatitudes of light.