A Pacific Vagrant

And so, in travel,

I made my mind treasonable in every way,

In treason to say I had eloped all those years

With sail and steam-launch from Europe's heavy season,

Having no love of Government, master or servant,

Or the winter fields in their bloodless demeanour;

And what blue dawn, to slip cable without possession

But a chart-map drawn of childhood wonder

That has broken the windstreams of oceans where only

The savage swims; and I too have been naked

When the sun dreamed on the deck, and have known

The star courses bend towards islands

Where fish dance on the beaches in full moon;

And I have seen pale opals, silhouettes, coasts

Of broad sunrise in the comedy of their becoming,

And high above these the green of unbroken forest

Where salty children ran like scents and lights and sounds

From tree to tree. These memories I hold to

Like humming-birds over hanging blossom,

A soft laughter that swells now in my sleep.