The Book of the Homeless/Finisterre

by Margaret L. Woods

FINISTERRE

O that on some forsaken strand,
Lone ending of a lonely land,
On such an eve we two were lying,
To hear the quiet water sighing
And feel the coolness of the sand.

A red and broken moon would grow
Out of the dusk and even so
As here to-night the street she faces,
Between the half-distinguished spaces
Of sea and sky would burn and go.

The moon would go and overhead,
Like tapers lighted o'er the dead.
Star after silver star would glimmer,
The lonely night grow calmer, dimmer,
The quiet sea sink in its bed.

We, at the end of Time and Fate,
Might unconcerned with love or hate
As the sea's voices, talk together.
Wherefore we went apart and whither.
And all the exiled years relate.

Thus were life's grey chance-'ravelled sleave'
Outspread, we something might perceive
Which never would to chance surrender,
But through the tangled woof its slender
Golden, elusive pattern weave.

Then while the great stars larger shone
Leaned on the sea, and drew thereon
Faint paths of light, across them faring
Might steal the ship that comes for bearing
Sore-wounded souls to Avalon.

Margaret L. Woods