Though your beauty be a flower
Of unimagined loveliness,
It cannot lure me tonight;
For I am all spirit.
As in the billowy oleander,
Full-bloomed,
Each blossom is all but lost
In the next—
One flame in a glow
Of green-veined rhodonite;
So is heaven a crystal magnificence
Of stars
Powdered lightly with blue.
For this one night
My spirit has turned honey-moth
And has made of the stars
Its flowers.
So all uncountable are the stars
That heaven shimmers as a web,
Bursting with light
From beyond,
A light exquisite,
Immeasurable!
For this one night
My spirit has dared, and been caught
In the web of the stars.
Though your beauty were a net
Of unimagined power,
It could not hold me tonight;
For I am all spirit.
This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on January 25, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.