A Birthday Song

This poem is dated April 8, 1935, which is shortly after the first anniversary of her sister Rose's death.

A BIRTHDAY SONG

The moon fashioned a design in the dusk

of musky clouds -- a rosy silhouette, spun

of moon-cloth and the shimmer of stars.

And she breathed into the design a living soul,

ethereal as mist and fanciful as an eagle’s wing

that seeks the mystery of hidden skies.

Like an Indian princess, the moon-girl grew

in closeness to earth, and the spirit of her

flung itself across the thread of dreams

that binds dense earth to sheer infinity.

Her feet danced with growing things,

and her hands formed a flower-chain

that brought beauty to loneliness.

Her mind hung gold-tipped lanterns

in the musty deeps of dormant intellects,

and radiance stirred blindness

to understanding.

Her heart flamed like a fountain

sprung from scented rock,

like a sanctuary mellowed with incense –

and its fire kindled love.

The moon fashioned a design in the dusk

of musky clouds – and the chalice of its spirit

Blends mortal earth with blue infinity.

Evelyn Coffey