“I Give Thanks” by Grace Fallow Norton

There’s one that I once loved so much I am no more the same. I give thanks for that transforming touch. I tell you not his name.

He has become a sign to me For flowers and for fire. For song he is a sign to me And for the broken lyre.

And I have known him in a book And never touched his hand. And he is dead—I need not took For him through his green land.

Heaven may not be. I have no faith, But this desire I have— To take my soul on my last breath, To lift it like a wave,

And surge unto his star and say, His friendship had been heaven; And pray, for clouds that closed his day May light at last be given!

And say, he shone at noon so bright I learned to run and rejoice! And beg him for one last delight— The true sound of his voice.

There’s one that once moved me so much I am no more the same; And I pray I too, I too, may touch Some heart with singing flame.

By Grace Fallow Norton from The New Poetry, An Anthology 1917 Ed. by Harriet Monroe HT: Elizabeth M