Afternoon

<SPAN name="XXII"></SPAN>XXII<br/> <br/> <br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">It was June in the garden,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">It was our time, our day;</span><br/> And our gaze with love on everything<br/> <span style="margin-left: 4em;">Did fall;</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">They seemed then softly opening,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">And they saw and loved us both,</span><br/> <span style="margin-left: 4em;">The roses all.</span><br/> <br/> The sky was purer than all limpid thought;<br/> <span style="margin-left: 4em;">Insect and bird</span><br/> Swept through the golden texture of the air,<br/> <span style="margin-left: 4em;">Unheard;</span><br/> Our kisses were so fair they brought<br/> Exaltation to both light and bird.<br/> It seemed as though a happiness at once<br/> Had skied itself and wished the heavens entire<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">For its resplendent fire;</span><br/> And life, all pulsing life, had entered in,<br/> Into the fissures of our beings to the core,<br/> <span style="margin-left: 1em;">To fling them higher.</span><br/> <br/> And there was nothing but invocatory cries,<br/> Mad impulses, prayers and vows that cleave<br/> <span style="margin-left: 4em;">The arched skies,</span><br/> And sudden yearning to create new gods,<br/> <span style="margin-left: 4em;">In order to believe.</span><br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />