The Embers | Page 7

Was it some golden star
Hot with romance?
Was it in Malabar,
Italy, France?
Did we know Charlemagne,
Dido, perchance?

But you were a queen, and I
Fought for you then:
How did you honour me--
More than all men!
Kissed me upon the lips;
Kiss me again.

Have you forgotten it,
All that we said?
I still remember though
Ages have fled.
Whisper the word of life,--
"Love is not dead."
I HEARD THE DESERT CALLING
I heard the desert calling, and my heart stood still-- There was winter in
my world and in my heart;
A breath came from the mesa, and a
message stirred my will, And my soul and I arose up to depart.

I heard the desert calling, and I knew that over there In an
olive-sheltered garden where the mesquite grows, Was a woman of the
sunrise with the star-shine in her hair And a beauty that the
almond-blossom blows.
In the night-time when the ghost-trees glimmered in the moon, Where
the mesa by the water-course was spanned,
Her loveliness enwrapped
me like the blessedness of June, And all my life was thrilling in her
hand.
I hear the desert calling, and my heart stands still-- There is summer in
my world, and in my heart;
A breath comes from the mesa, and a will
beyond my will Binds my footsteps as I rise up to depart.
THE FORGOTTEN WORD
Once in the twilight of the Austrian
hills,
A word came to me, wonderful and