Poems (Jordan)/We Cannot

by Rebecca Queen Jordan

WE CANNOT

We cannot learn from seed,
 What sort of buds will bloom;
Nor a life's story read
 From words upon a tomb;
We cannot know by tears
 Which well has been their source;—
If Joy's which overcheers,—
 Or Grief's, cupped in remorse.

We cannot tell by laughter,
 Whence proceeds the sound;
Perhaps it follows after
 Despair's unhealing wound;
It may be whole as childhood's,—
 Mirthless as withered years;
Or the heart's voice in wild moods,
 Defying deadly fears!

We cannot judge by masks
 What features lie beneath;
Nor doing dreary tasks
 What tyrant-swords we sheathe!
We cannot know by aught
 Which on the surface floats,
With what the stream is fraught,
 On which Life sails her boats!