GLADNESS
Reading edition
A coal miner does not need the sun's illumination. He carries his own light.
The world has brought not anything To make me glad to-day! The swallow had a broken wing, And after all my journeying There was no water in the spring— My friend has said me nay. But yet somehow I needs must sing As on a luckier day.
Dusk fails as gray as any tear, There is no hope in sight! But something in me seems so fair, That like a star I needs must wear A safety made of shining air Between me and the night. Such inner weavings do I wear All fashioned of delight!
I need not for these robes of mine The loveliness of earth, But happenings remote and fine Like threads of dreams will blow and shine In gossamer and crystalline, And I was glad from birth. So even while my eyes repine, My heart is clothed in mirth.
Anna Hempstead Branch.
From "The Shoes That Danced, and Other Poems."