At Rest (for Yeats)

This poem, and the ensuing melody (though the melody came first) is inspired by, and is a tribute to, W.B. Yeats; brought alive by his poem, “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven.”

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

For months after I came across this poem I read anything Yeats I could lay my hands on, because in my book this Yeats’ poem is one of the finest ever written.

Hence the tribute.

At Rest (for Yeats) This poem, and the ensuing melody (though the melody came first) is inspired by, and is a tribute to, W.B. Yeats: brought alive by his poem, "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven."

The Words:

Fair and fertile fallow
and all that be
furled then hurled then unfurled
this moment

Sought and caught
though never caught
the fading heart replies
to seed and heed the seed
and think
to let the thought
embrace the seeding

Touch the tongue that trembles
the hurt to hide
to see the seen and unseen
and certain

Found and bound
though never bound
take heart my heart take flight
take wing and bring the wing
to touch
the lives and sacred lives
surrounding

Frail and free
though rarely free
the fraught the fought
the taught rebel

And so I dare
to plant my share
of heart to see
the heartless
hearted

Seed and
Heed and
Heed
indeed your heart

Borders bend before us
and fade to rest
wrought and taught now untaught
forever

Born unborn
yet ever born
my always heart take flight
take wing and bring the wing
to touch
the wing and touch of wing
surrounding

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