Once across restless mounds of the sea
our eyes met; only the distance and unaccustomed
darkness kept me from Your face
until decades had gone by;
until now, until here,
past so much needless sorrowing
in the bleak places, waiting for forgetful
faces, and forgetting the one look between us
like the flash of pharos to ship’s light
over waters drenched with night and danger,
I rediscover,
after so many roads inland and shoreward led nowhere,
the one look that takes all, gives all,
makes hearth henceforth that warmth engendered
by its secret fire in marrow, myriad cells:
those joyous runners in the blood crying, Awake!
the long waiting to begin is over.