O sweet and luminous bird

Having once heard your call

Lovely and shy, lovely and shy

I shall be hungry for the finished word

Across the windy sky

Across the windy sky

Of all voiced longing and all music heard

I spread my net for your bewildering wings

But wings are wiser than the swiftest hands

Than the swiftest hands

Are wiser

Than the swifest hands

Where a bird sings

Where a bird sings

Where a bird sings

Where a bird sings

Where a bird sings

Where a bird sings

Where a bird sings

I held my heart, in fear that it would break

And called you through the grief of whip-poor-wills

I watched you in the avenues that make a radiant city on the western hills

Where a bird sings

Where a bird sings

Where a bird sings

Where a bird sings

Yet since I knew you not

I knew you not

I sought in vain

I sought in vain

I sought in vain

I called you beauty

For its fleet white sound

But now in my illumined heart

I can release the hound of love

Upon whose bruising leash I strain

Oh, he will grasp

He will grasp you

Where you skim the sod, nor wound your breast

For love is soft as death

Love is soft as death

Swifter than beauty is

And strong as God