Eternal Longing: Ode to the Celestial Beloved

You are the light, the glow, the shine
The warmth, the blaze, the divine
I yearn, I ache, I pine
To feel your rays once more entwine

Around my weary mortal frame
Igniting passions that became
Long lost in life's dull game
Oh let your fires within me flame

Against the cold and bitter night
Your embrace was my delight
In your rays I felt so bright  
Without you here there is no light

You are the tide, the current, the flow
The vast, the deep, the ebb and go
I drift, I fade, I lowly row
Journeying nowhere, my sails all blows

Upon the waters so immense
With you each moment was intense
Our spirits danced in joint commence
Now lonely adrift without your presence  

Your waves washed me to distant shores
Showed me islands I'd not explored   
With you I wanted nothing more
Now marooned, heartfelt and sore

You are the stone, the peak, the height
The lofty, the grand, the craggy sight
I climb, I scale, my muscles tight
Hoping to reach your noble height

But your summits of clouds are crowned
While I remain earthbound
Straining skyward without a sound
For your majesty I am spellbound

In your glory I found my worth  
Climbing your cliffs since my birth
To fall from your grades would mean dearth
Without your stature, little is my worth

You are the gust, the blow, the burst
The bluster, the stream, the outward thrust
I sway, I lean, my anchor cursed
Longing to feel your winds dispersed

Across my sails in days of lore
When we explored seas uncharted before
With you I wanted nothing more
Now becalmed upon this wayward shore

Your breath filled my voyage with song
Coursing currents we sailed along
Days joyful, the nights not long
Now stillness silence the winds have gone

You are the world, the earth, the way
The road, the path, the night and day
I wander, I roam, I go astray
Searching for where your landscapes lay

The valleys, the hills, the meadows green
The mountains, the cliffs, the streams between
With you each scene was serene
Now lost, your realm remains unseen  

By your movements I was stirred
My heart rapturous when with you blurred
Over the earth in flight of bird
Without you, stilled wings leave me interred

I keep reaching, longing, yearning
For you again brightly burning
For your tides again churning
For your summits my soul discerning

I sway and drift in absent flows
I climb cold crags where no wind blows
I wander lost down lonely roads
My spirit burdened and overloaded

For just one extra glimpse divine
Of your celestial rays to shine
And offer this frail soul of mine
A taste of your greatness so sublime

So I may know once more in full  
The fervor of our paths that lull
In sacred heights no words can cull
Of oceans vast of stars that pull

And never shall I cease this quest
To find the way back to your rest
Through shadows dim and valleys blest
To rediscover what I love best

Although our journey had to part
Its treasures live on in my heart
No distance can make them depart
For your spirit shaped my inner art

So let me hear your sweet refrain  
Across the darkness once again
And if only once more we can attain
The bond we shared that banished pain

Then I will cherish that transcendent song  
And let it give my weary soul strength to carry on
Until I cross that final vale and river long  
Back unto your radiance, where I know I belong

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art—
Not in lone splendour hung aloft in night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like Nature's patient sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask of snow
Upon the mountains and the moors—

No, yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft swell and fall,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever—or else swoon to death.

How can my soul find rest, sweet wanderer of the skies,
While yearning for your tender gaze to meet mine eyes?
Each moment we're apart tormenting absence cries,
For only in your presence my spirit truly flies.

Come back to me, beloved, break this lonesome spell!
Let joyous reuniting our longing hearts compel,
That we may walk together where shady greenwoods dwell,
No earthly paradise with your absence can excel.

Soothe these nights of solitude with your tranquil light,
Lead me from this wilderness, be my hearts delight,
Guide me to those gentle shores long lost from my sight,
Where in mercies of your smile again my soul unite.