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-2/
