Song of the rose

For Elizabeth

 

The rose awakens ere the sky

Has wakened to the sun;

And we, my one true love and I,

Awaken with a tender sigh,

To love until the day has run,

And all our pains are done.

 

We part the burdens of the breast,

The weight of passing cares,

And gather roses, take our rest,

And count the ways that we are blest,

Each offering the other’s prayers,

In our old hymns and airs.

 

For, the sky looks down upon the rose,

The stars upon the sky, and God

On all things, and our hearts He knows,

And Fair Love’s face will He disclose

To those, in silk or leather shod,

Who soar, or search, or plod.

 

 

© Joseph Charles MacKenzie. All rights reserved.