The Poet

Out of the deep and the dark,

A sparkling mystery, a shape, 

Something perfect,

Comes like the stir of the day:

One whose breath is an odour,

Whose eyes show the road to stars,

The breeze in his face,

The glory of Heaven on his back.

He steps like a vision hung in air,

Diffusing the passion of Eternity;

His abode is the sunlight of morn,

The music of eve his speech:

In his sight,

One shall turn from the dust of the grave,

And move upward to the woodland.

Credit

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on July 8, 2018, by the Academy of American Poets.

About this Poem

This poem was published in Selected Poems of Yone Noguchi (The Four Seas Company, 1921).

Author

Yone Noguchi

Yone Noguchi, the first Japanese-born writer to publish poetry in English, was born in 1875 in Tsushima. He lived and worked in San Francisco, and was the author of numerous books of poetry and prose. He died Toyooka-mura on July 13, 1947.

Date Published

01/01/1921