Is love a light for me? A steady light, <br />A lamp within whose pallid pool I dream <br />Over old love-books? Or is it a gleam, <br />A lantern coming towards me from afar <br />Down a dark mountain? Is my love a star? <br />Ah me!- so high above so coldly bright! <br />The fire dances. Is my love a fire <br />Leaping down the twilight muddy and bold? <br />Nay, I'd be frightened of him. I'm too cold <br />For quick and eager loving. There's a gold <br />Sheen on these flower petals as they fold <br />More truly mine, more like to my desire. <br />The flower petals fold. They are by the sun <br />Forgotten. In a shadowy wood they grow <br />Where the dark trees keep up a to-and-fro <br />Shadowy waving. Who will watch them shine <br />When I have dreamed my dream? Ah, darling mine, <br />Find them, gather them for me one by one.<br /><br />Katherine Mansfield<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/secret-flowers-2/
