My Soul's Delight

Beauty's crown lay easy on your head,

You spoke but little in those failing days

Of the cruel and endless hours of your pain,

But when you spoke your eyes grew bright with love.

O beauty breaking though the form-bound shell,

O light that burned so brilliantly within,

O radiant soul, angelic among the flowers

Whose silent heart was like a flaming rose,

You knew that life moves towards one destiny,

A march to the light that ever stronger grows

Implanted in this dull resistant clay.

You held this time-worn face in spotless hands

And felt the flame that burned so strong in me,

I know that all your being understood

That the dark angel waited patiently.

"You are my friend and my salvation",

Were among your final words to me.

I chanted through the eternity of night

Until morn came and softly you retired

To the heavens of the blessed, your native home,

My heart's companion and my soul's delight.