Poems (Mansfield)/A Little Girl's Prayer
A LITTLE GIRL'S PRAYER
Grant me the moment, the lovely momentThat I may lean forth to seeThe other buds, the other blooms,The other leaves on the tree:
That I may take into my bosomThe breeze that is hike his brother,But stiller, lighter, whose faint laughterEchoes the joy of the other.
Above on the blue and white cloud-spacesThere are small clouds at play.I watch their remote, mysterious play-timeIn the other far-away.
Grant I may hear the small birds singingThe song that the silence knows . . .(The Light and the Shadow whisper together,The lovely moment grows,
Ripples into the air like waterAway and away without sound,And the little girl gets up from her praying On the cold ground.) 1919.