Find The Fugitive Sanctuary

Knowing

Was ever there a day for you

To be no more alone?

Was ever seer seen enough

To know what had been known?

I went an evening to a well

And saw reflections there

Of flimsy Earth and concrete sky,

Of knowing if and where.

We never thought to know too much

The viewing came unbidden;

Our eyes took all our hearts could bear

As though it were not hidden.

When we arose, another one

Rose softly on our feet;

We had not lost or gained a soul ~

We had become complete.

From ever after there’s the well

And dancing, lively eyes.

We never since need ask again,

Nor wait for 'their' replies.

When day begins or starts to fade,

Our surety more certain

Is that no end will ever be.

There is no final curtain.

〰©Nellieanna H. Hay

GIFT

A letter came for me

Postmarked 1888.

Destiny, yesterday,

Today, tomorrow -

Bedraggled by its journey,

Opened by mistake,

Arrived, to wearied eyes, a gift

To comfort me in sorrow.

I turned it in my hand.

I'd never known a muse.

The fragile form misled me

I searched, I scanned,

Unknowing then,

This prize I was to use,

A letter to the world

Unsilenced, still began.

'You can!' - how puzzling, -

'Though you have never read me.'

True, I'd not known this hand before.

I hardly knew to question.

I put it safely in my heart

To ponder further still.

Not knowing why it nestled there

Nor that it ever will.

Soon words came freely to me!

Whenever life would frighten

Or inner joy outgrew

The inner space inside me,

A poem would catch the overflow;

In lines I hardly knew,

Brought me myself to know,

To always have beside me.

It ever brings me cheer.

‘Tis mine to have, adore it.

If silence serves me best

Toward circumstance or foe,

This friend in silence hears me;

A confidante and counsel,

Sweet secret resting place

For thoughts that pass before it.

A gift like this, - a sanctuary,

Finer than mere finite prize.

I never met the giver yet,

Who comes in thin disguise.

A little voice, tremendous store,

In letter to the world,

Giver has relinquished

To pass it on with more.

I must needs this gifting fill

To recompense such legacy,

To render all its dues,

To glorify its promise.

I let it freely come and go

To use me as it will!

Crystal silence, potent ecstasy,

Perpetual circumference!

Thank you, powerful poet,

My shy posthumous Muse!

〰©Nellieanna H. Hay

I came into a shadow

Too dense to light a way,

Found no past ghosts,

No finite hosts

To justify their say.

I tremble on the crest of it,

The past, reiterate.

Blubbering in the rain,

I say too much; I fabricate

The feeling known as pain.

Withdrawn within,

Emerged without,

To say that I had been.

Never doubting, I became

Once more to do this thing.

〰©Nellieanna H. Hay

If I know you well

As I desire,

I'll never know I do.

But if you disclose

Yourself to me,

I'll not know that I didn't.

〰©Nellieanna H. Hay