I. <br /> <br />I will take your thoughts to my heart; <br />I will keep and garner them there <br />Locked in a casket apart. <br />Far above rubies or rare <br />Pearls from the prodigal deep, <br />Which men stake their lives on to find, <br />And women their beauty to keep, <br />I will treasure the pearls of your mind. <br /> <br />How long has it taken the earth <br />To crystallize gems in a mine? <br />How long was the sea giving birth <br />To her pearls, washed in bitterest brine? <br />What sorrows, what struggles, what fierce <br />Endeavour of lives in the past, <br />Hearts tempered by fire and tears, <br />To fashion your manhood at last! <br /> <br /> <br />II. <br /> <br />TAKE me to thy heart, and let me <br />Rest my head a little while; <br />Rest my heart from griefs that fret me <br />In the mercy of thy smile. <br /> <br />In a twilight pause of feeling, <br />Time to say a moment's grace, <br />Put thy hands, whose touch is healing, <br />Put them gently on my face. <br /> <br />Found too late in Life's wild welter, <br />All I ask, for weal and woe, <br />Friend, a moment's friendly shelter, <br />And thy blessing ere I go. <br /> <br /> <br />III. <br /> <br />FULL many loves and friendships dear <br />Have blossomed brightly in my path; <br />And some were like the primrose rathe, <br />And withered with the vernal year. <br /> <br />And some were like the joyous rose, <br />Most prodigal with scent and hue, <br />That glows while yet the sky is blue, <br />And falls with every wind that blows-- <br /> <br />Mere guests and annuals of the heart; <br />But you are that perennial bay, <br />Greenest when greener leaves decay, <br />Whom only death shall bid depart.<br /><br />Mathilde Blind<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/affinities/
