Winter Midnight (II)

Clark Ashton Smith

After our fond, reiterate farewells
In the shadow of the wall, between the lamplight and the moon,
I left you, and returned, and, torn from you once more,
Departed loath and laggardly
Into the icy, luminous, immense white night.
But, though my every step was a gulf dividing us
On ways forlorn and chill,
I was not cold nor sorrowful nor alone,
Nor friended by regret;
For love went with me like the warmth of a happy room
And soft enfolding arms;
And the widening space between us
Was somehow one with love,
And evermore I knew
That your heart and my heart were islanded
In the self-same throbbing sea of happiness and light,
And washed by the self-same waves of vibrant memory,
Like shores of halcyon summer
Where halcyon perfumes mount beneath a burning moon.

Printed from: eldritchdark.com/writings/poetry/654
Printed on: March 29, 2024