IMMORTALITY Age cannot reach me where the veils of God have shut me in, For me the myriad births of stars and suns do but begin, And here how fragrantly there blows to me the holy breath, Sweet from the flowers and stars and hearts of men, We are not old, O heart, we are not old, The breath that blows The soul aflame is still a wandering wind That comes and goes; And the stirred heart with sudden raptured life a moment glows. A moment here -- a bulrush's brown head in the grey rain, A moment here -- a child drowned and a heart quickened with pain; The name of Death, the blue deep heaven, the scent of the salt sea, The spicy grass, the honey robbed from the wild bee. Awhile we walk the world on its wide roads and narrow ways And they pass by, the countless shadowy troops of nights and days; We know them not, O happy heart, but you and I Watch where within a slow dawn lightens up another sky. -- Susan L. Mitchell (1868-1930)