I saw Lord Buddha towering by my gate <br />Saying: "Once more, good youth, I stand and wait." <br />Saying: "I bring you my fair Law of Peace <br />And from your withering passion full release; <br />Release from that white hand that stabbed you so. <br />The road is calling. With the wind you go, <br />Forgetting her imperious disdain — <br />Quenching all memory in the sun and rain." <br /> <br />"Excellent Lord, I come. But first," I said, <br />"Grant that I bring her these twelve roses red. <br />Yea, twelve flower kisses for her rose-leaf mouth, <br />And then indeed I go in bitter drouth <br />To that far valley where your river flows <br />In Peace, that once I found in every rose."<br /><br />Vachel Lindsay<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/with-a-bouquet-of-twelve-roses/
