I thought to die that night in the solitude where they would never find me… <br />But there was time… <br />And I lay quietly on the drawn knees of the mountain, <br />staring into the abyss… <br />I do not know how long… <br />I could not count the hours, they ran so fast <br />Like little bare-foot urchins - shaking my hands away… <br />But I remember <br />Somewhere water trickled like a thin severed vein… <br />And a wind came out of the grass, <br />Touching me gently, tentatively, like a paw. <br /> <br />As the night grew <br />The gray cloud that had covered the sky like sackcloth <br />Fell in ashen folds about the hills, <br />Like hooded virgins, pulling their cloaks about them… <br />There must have been a spent moon, <br />For the Tall One's veil held a shimmer of silver… <br /> <br />That too I remember… <br />And the tenderly rocking mountain <br />Silence <br />And beating stars… <br /> <br />Dawn <br />Lay like a waxen hand upon the world, <br />And folded hills <br />Broke into a sudden wonder of peaks, stemming clear and cold, <br />Till the Tall One bloomed like a lily, <br />Flecked with sun, <br />Fine as a golden pollen - <br />It seemed a wind might blow it from the snow. <br /> <br />I smelled the raw sweet essences of things, <br />And heard spiders in the leaves <br />And ticking of little feet, <br />As tiny creatures came out of their doors <br />To see God pouring light into his star… <br /> <br />… It seemed life held <br />No future and no past but this… <br /> <br />And I too got up stiffly from the earth, <br />And held my heart up like a cup…<br /><br />Lola Ridge<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-edge-18/
