If you were walking on the line
Of a vast and mighty strand
Where all the sea had fled away
And all you knew was sand
You might ask from where it was
These grains of rock took birth
And whence indeed th’uncanny wind
Which breathes of sea to earth
Then all at once as you walked
A tide came skipping on
A million million rivers flood
To lift the rocks with song
Then you saw those wastes of stone
For the shoreline that they were
The ancient ebb of an ocean deep
A Springtide long deferred
Even so the universe
And all worlds that may be
Feel within the deep defect of
Some long departed sea
Yet suddenly the rocks may spin
And sense their endless night
As both decoy and the deed
Of love hidden in plain sight
And all at once that love will rise
That long did hide its face–
For love will not be bargained for
But must know its own embrace–
And the sea, the sea, is running in
To arms held open wide
A million milion rivulets
Of love’s returning tide!