Ties of Memory

Should the drifting ties of memory
Come and bind me here today
Or if I am lost to dawning
By the truths that I betray---
Might the memories of musings
Hold me true in loving light
In a forest of translucence,
All shot through with blackest night.
If the noises rise to drown me
Would you save that one mistake
Or if mystery compels me,
Follow footsteps that I take---
Through a sunshine bright as dawning
Or the dust of treasures lost,
By a world that’s crowned with fire
But still tinged with creeping frost?
Should the curling flames of happiness
Devour me today,
I will not be lost to wandering
Every night---through every day.
Because truth as shocking stillness
Still is stronger than darkest pain
And in quiet we see the mystery
Of everywhere we’ll see again.