He Touched Me, So I Live To Know

poem 506

He touched me, so I live to know That such a day, permitted so, I groped upon his breast It was a boundless place to me And silenced, as the awful sea Puts minor streams to rest. And now, I’m different from before, As if I breathed superior air Or brushed a Royal Gown My feet, too, that had wandered so My Gypsy face transfigured now To tenderer Renown Into this Port, if I might come, Rebecca, to Jerusalem, Would not so ravished turn Nor Persian, baffled at her shrine Lift such a Crucifixial sign To her imperial Sun.