Poems (Tree)/Vahdah

by Iris Tree

VAHDAH

SUN-AUREOLED lilies are your priestesses,They stand like choirs in silver surplices,Melodious streams of silence fill the room,And pensive listeners lean within the gloomOf purple quietness. A laughter full of holiness—Like the wild bells of lilies ringing in the lonelinessOf star-reflected gardens walled with night,—Thrills from your soul which empties its delightAs rain on lilies, or as sunlight falling slenderlyTo gild their ivory temples, and as moonlight shutting tenderlyTheir alabaster doors. . . . A white peace grows,And love, within your spirit like a lily and a rose.

1918