Tonight, while weighing wild winged hope with fears

Of loss, again the girl’s voice crying gay

And sweet – O playmate of lost pagan years! –

Comes ringing in the glory of the May.

O singing beauty! Singing though there nears

The moment of all finding and all loss:

Together in our laughter and our tears,

Wind-driven to the centre where ways cross.

Rose garden in blue night, where souls embraced

In holy silence, timeless ecstasy:

Truth grew between us, final beauty laced

The stars, and awed we knew eternity.

A secret sharing passed from eye to eye:

In death the singing beauty does not die.

-Sheldon Vanauken

Tagged: A Severe Mercy, A Severe Mercy quote, All Hallow's Eve, All Hallow's Eve poem, death, grief, grief poem, grief poetry, longing, loss, love poem, poetry, Sheldon Vanauken, Sheldon Vanauken poem, the Flash, wistful