New Grief

Nothing more lovely than the shy petal looking out from

the leaf,

Than the new nimbus that hovers

Over the tree. Nothing with more gleam

Than the new stars in the eyes of lovers,

And nothing more truly beautiful than grief

That looses the first stream

Of tears, and the first cries

For the old, old woe that everything dies.

No one is so loved as the lost in death;

He comes back again in the sorrowing mind

Taller, braver than when he drew breath,

Dearer than when he lay intertwined

With love. Where fish gleam and dart

No water so bright as the splashing of new rain,

No blossom so white as the snow crystal before it has lain,

No song so beautiful as new agony crying from the heart.