LEAVE ME TO MY OWN by LEW SARETT

Oh, leave me to my own;
Unglorified -- perchance unknown,
One of a nameless band
Of gipsy cloud and silent butte and fir.
Oh, let me stand
Against the whipping wind, in the lavender
Of dusk, like a mighty limber-pine
At timber-line --
Unyielding, stiff,
Unbent of head
Among the ageless dead --
One with the mountain's cliff
And the imperturbable stone.

And when the winter gales intone
Among my boughs a dread
And melancholy sweep
Of song and some mysterious hand
Brushes my heart
In a mournful melody, weep
No tear for me, nor moan --
Pray stand apart
From me, and leave me to my own;
For in the high blue valleys of this land,
When the afterglow
Lingers among the glaciers, I shall know
Again the calm
Of dusk, the dewy balm
Of sleep, release
From pain -- and utter peace.

Oh leave me to the wild companionship
Of days that toss
In the windy night and drip
Their wild wet rains upon the moss;
To the columbine
That strives to slip
Shyly among my roots and tip
Its sparkling wine
Upon my grassy shrine;
To the brotherhood
Of bending skies bestrown
With stars above the soundless solitude --
Of waterfalls that fling upon the night
A stony broken music from their height --
Oh, leave me to my own.

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

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