Wash of cold river
in a glacial land,
Ionian water,
chill, snow—ribbed sand,
drift of rare flowers,
clear, with delicate shell—
like leaf enclosing
frozen lily—leaf,
camellia texture,
colder than a rose;
wind—flower
that keeps the breath
of the north—wind—
these and none other;
intimate thoughts and kind
reach out to share
the treasure of my mind,
intimate hands and dear
drawn garden—ward and sea—ward
all the sheer rapture
that I would take
to mould a clear
and frigid statue;
rare, of pure texture,
beautiful space and line,
marble to grace
your inaccessible shrine.
