Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri

Peace on this Wesak Day

When My Soul Findeth Wings

Let me introduce another lovely poem, written a century ago by Libbie C Baer, which again moves me very much. I read it in poems.org (a website run by the Academy of American poets)

Libbie C. Baer was born in Ohio on 18 November 1849. She was the author of In the Land of Fancy and Other Poems (F. T. Neely, 1902). She passed away on 27 February 1929.

When My Soul Findeth Wings

Like roses the bright dream did pass, 

On swift, noiseless footsteps away;
Like glistening dew on the grass,
Dissolving beneath the sun’s ray.

Like voice of the lark that doth soar,
Through the golden haze of the dawn;
You hear it and bend to adore,
Just hear it and then it is gone. 

The lark on his swift, flashing wings,
Keeps pace with the flowers in their flight;
And that’s why when soaring he sings,
And passes so swiftly from sight.

I slept, and a vision did see,
Of eyes that were tender and blue;
I awoke to know that for me
The vision may never come true.

The lark soars no more in the skies,
He’s gone with the roses and dew;
The face with the soft tender eyes,
Comes never to gladden my view.

My memory holds images fair,
Of all these beautiful things;
Which I will be seeking somewhere,
When my soul, as lark, findeth wings.

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on May 3, 2020 by the Academy of American Poets