The Celestial Circus

In Heaven, if not on earth, You and I will be dancing. I will whirl you over my head, A torch and a flag and a bird, A hawk that loves my shoulder, A dove with plumes outspread. We will whirl for God when the trumpets Speak the millennial word.

We will howl in praise of God, Dervish and young cyclone. We will ride in the joy of God On circus horses white. Your feet will be white lightning, Your spangles white and regal, We will leap from the horses’ backs To the cliffs of day and night.

We will have our rest in the pits of sleep When the darkness heaps upon us, And buries us for æons Till we rise like grass in the spring. We will come like dandelions, Like buttercups and crocuses, And all the winter of our sleep But make us storm and sing.

We will tumble like swift foam On the wave-crests of old ghostland, And dance on the crafts of doom, And wrestle on the moon. And Saturn and his triple ring Will be our tinsel circus, Till all sad wraiths of yesterday With the stars rejoice and croon.

O dancer, love undying, My soul, my swan, my eagle, The first of our million dancing years Dawns, dawns soon.