By Christina Rossetti

A Friend from College sent me these poems, because my writing travels in the same universe as Christina Rossetti’s. I guess she was right!
Thank you Bárbara…

A Rose Plant in Jericho

At morn I plucked a rose and gave it Thee,
A rose of joy and happy love and peace,
A rose with scarce a thorn:
But in chillness of a second morn
My rose bush drooped, and all its gay increase
Was but one thorn that wounded me.

I plucked the thorn and offered it to Thee
And for my thorn Thou gavest love and peace,
Not joy this mortal morn:
If Thou hast given much treasure for a thorn,
Wilt Thou not give me for my rose increase
Of gladness, and all sweets to me?

My thorny rose, my love and pain, to Thee
I offer; and I set my heart in peace.
And rest upon my thorn:
For verily I think tomorrow morn
Shall bring me Paradise, my gift`s increase,
Yea, give Thy very Self to me.

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An Echo From Willow-wood

Two gazed into a pool, he gazed and she,
Not hand in hand, yet heart in heart, I think,
Pale and reluctant on the water`s brink,
As on the brink of parting which must be.
Each eyed the other`s aspect, she and he,
Each felt one hungering heart leap up and sink,
Each tasted bitterness which both must drink,
There on the brink of life`s dividing sea.
Lilies upon the surface, deep below
Two wistful faces craving each for each,
Resolute and reluctant without speech:--
A sudden ripple made the faces flow,
One moment joined, to vanish out of reach:
So those hearts joined, and ah were parted so.