Poems by Themis

What was it?

Was it a smile in the blue radiant night?

— We climbed a stairway as into opening skies,

A-throb with strange pulsations, ancient ties

Of love and longing, and hidden deep delight;

Silent and tense we went, so still and white

The mind with inward power; no bright surmise

Nor dream nor trail of sunlit memories

Could ever know that ecstasy of sight.

What was it? Sovereign Beauty seated there,

Or Love incarnate pouring all its grace?

A marvellous Presence filling all the air

With sweetness so ineffable, awhile

Our souls enraptured in its pure embrace

Lay lost? — Or was it just one luminous smile?

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