She wandered down to the rocky beach <br />On the first Monday in June, <br />She wore a shawl, and carried a wreath <br />And sat for the afternoon, <br />She’d wait til the sun was sinking low <br />And shadows moved in the caves, <br />Then stride out into the rising tide <br />And cast her wreath on the waves. <br /> <br />She didn’t flinch if the waves were high <br />Or the storm clouds brought her rain, <br />She gazed out past the horizon while <br />Her face was creased with pain, <br />When lightning flickered across the sky <br />She knew that the gods could see, <br />And wrung her hands with a terrible cry, <br />‘Will none of you pity me? ’ <br /> <br />‘Take me, ’ she cried at the rising tide, <br />‘Take me, ’ she groaned at the sky, <br />‘You’ve taken the only thing I loved <br />And not even told me why! ’ <br />She threw herself at the foam-fleck’d waves <br />Where the swell would rise and breach, <br />But ever the tide in its forward ride <br />Would cast her back on the beach. <br /> <br />She sheltered then in the echoing caves <br />That dotted the cliff face shore, <br />And tears had streamed from a source of grace <br />The gods had preserved once more, <br />She heard the echoes as waters lapped, <br />Or thundered in at the cave, <br />A voice that ever had held her rapt, <br />‘Be brave, my love, be brave! ’ <br /> <br />She shut her eyes and she reached on out <br />For the source of the voice’s charms, <br />And moaned for a distant memory <br />That had held her once in his arms, <br />But the sea was keeping his secrets now, <br />She could only guess, and pine, <br />She couldn’t know that he lay below <br />Near the coast of Palestine. <br /> <br />A stranger came on the woman there, <br />One of the gypsy folk, <br />Just as the lightning flickered once <br />And he wrapped her in his cloak. <br />He took her up to the top of the cliff <br />Where the unknown future lies, <br />As she turned aside to wave goodbye <br />There was lovelight in his eyes. <br /> <br />30 March 2014<br /><br />David Lewis Paget<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/take-me-63/
