A lone palm leans in the moonlight
Over a convent wall.
The sea below is waking and breaking
With quiet heave and fall.
A young nun sits at the window;
For Heaven she is too fair;
Yet even the Dove of God might nest
In her bosom beating there.
A lone ship sails from the harbour:
Whom does it bear away?
Her lover who sin-hearted has parted
And left her but to pray?
She has no lover, nor ever
Has heard afar love’s sigh.
Only the convent’s vesper vow
Has ever dimmed her eye.
For naught knows she of her beauty,
More than the palm of its peace;
And who beyond Christ’s portal to mortal
Desires would bend her knees?
The ways of the World have flowers,
And any who will pluck those;
But let there ever be a place
Where none may pluck God’s rose.
(Cale Young Rice)
More Poetry from Cale Young Rice:
Cale Young Rice Poems based on Topics: God, World, Love, War & Peace, Beauty, Fairness, Flowers, Youth, Place- Brude (Cale Young Rice Poems)
- Nirvana Days (Cale Young Rice Poems)
- Quest And Requital (Cale Young Rice Poems)
- The Colonel's Story (Cale Young Rice Poems)
- O-Shichi And Moto (Cale Young Rice Poems)
- The Shore's Song To The Sea (Cale Young Rice Poems)