IT WAS ONLY the other day that I came to your earth, naked and nameless, with a wailing cry.
To-day my voice is glad, while you, my lord, stand aside to make room that I may fill my life.
Even when I bring you my songs for an offering I have the secret hope that men will come and love me for them.
You love to discover that I love this world where you have brought me.

THE DUMB earth looks into my face and spreads her arms about me.
At night the fingers of the stars touch my dreams. They know my former name.
Their whispers remind me of the music of a long silent lullaby. They bring to my mind the smile of a face seen in the
gleam of the first daybreak.
There is love in each speck of earth and joy in the spread-of the sky.
I care not if I become dust, for the dust is touched by his feet.
I care not if I become a flower, for the flower he takes up in his hand.
He is in the sea, on the shore; he is with the ship that carries all.
Whatever I am I am blessed and blessed is this earth of dear dust.

THEY WHO ARE near to me do not know that you are nearer to me
than they are.
They who speak to me do not know that my heart is full with your
unspoken words.
They who crowd in my path do not know I am walking alone with you.
They who love me do not know that their love brings you to my heart.