The Nearness of the Beloved

I think of you, feeling the sun’s bright shimmer

From the sea’s blue;

When the moon’s painted in the wellspring’s glimmer

I think of you.

I see you when above the distant highway

The dust awakes;

When on the footbridge of the midnight byway

The traveler quakes.

I hear you when with sullen roaring violence

The wave-crest breaks;

In the still grove I listen for the silence

Your absence makes.

I am with you; however far you wander,

Still you are near.

The sun is setting, stars blaze out up yonder:

Would you were here!

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