Poems & poèmes/With two dwarf Japanese maples

by Natalie Clifford Barney

 

WITH TWO DWARF JAPANESE MAPLES

These ancient trees for your new room.
May many happy evenings fall
With their reflections on the wall,
Making embroideries of the gloom,
And let their leaves of red and green
Rustle with small desires and fears,
But never water them with tears
For all that is or has not been.
Lives pass as shadows on a screen,
Whether you dream or sing or sew,
Or if some time Regret instead
Should bow, my Loveliest, your head,
Send me a leaf so I shall know :
For Hope the green, for Love the red.

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