Burning Bush

One morning in eternity

I thought myself into a tree.

I felt my breast push with the sheen

Of leaves expanding into green;

I felt my arms like living wood

Thrill with resilience as I stood;

I felt the sap within my spine

Rise like the heart-blood of the pine.

Put off thy shoes (there was no sound)

And root thy feet in holy ground.

I stripped my body to the breeze,

The naked fellow of all trees;

And stood again with arms outspread,

My self almost untenanted.

Then, with a roar, there rose in me

The flames of a strange ecstasy.

My leaves, my branches unconsumed,

With blossoms terrible I bloomed;

So tense, the whole world was obscured,

While, for a moment, I endured.

Then the fierce heat and brilliance died.

I shuddered, cold. On either side

The sun and moon stared like dead thieves.

My arms seemed naked of their leaves.