Assurance
Yea, there are as many stars under the Earth as over the Earth...
Plenty of room to roll around in has our planet...
And I, at the edge of the porch,
Hearing the crickets shrill in the star-thick armies of grass,
And beholding over the spread of Earth the spread of the heavens...
Drink this deep moment in my pilgrimage,
With a sense of how forever I have been alive,
With a conviction that I shall go on, ever safe, ever growing,
The stars to be included in my travels,
And the future sure before me.
This poem is in the public domain.
First published in The Sea (Alfred A. Knopf, 1924).
James Oppenheim
Born on May 24, 1882, in St. Paul, Minnesota, James Oppenheim was a poet, novelist, and psychoanalyst. His published works include The Sea (Alfred A. Knopf, 1924); The Book of Self (Alfred A. Knopf, 1917); Songs for the New Age (The Century Co., 1914); and The Olympian (Harper and Brothers, 1912).
Oppenheim was the founder and editor of the early twentieth-century literary magazine The Seven Arts. He died in New York City on August 4, 1932.