Distant Voices
By Dora Sigerson Shorter
I left my home for travelling;
Because I heard the strange birds sing
In foreign skies, and felt their wing
Brush past my soul impatiently;
I saw the bloom on flower and tree
That only grows beyond the sea.
Methought the distant voices spake
More wisdom than near tongues can make;
I followed-lest my heart should break.
And what is past is past and done.
I dreamt, and here the dream begun:
I saw a salmon in the sun
Leap from the river to the shore-
Ah! strange mishap, so wounded sore,
To his sweet stream to turn no more.
A bird from neath his mothers breast,
Spread his weak wings in vain request;
Never again to reach his nest.
I saw a blossom bloom too soon
Upon a summers afternoon;
Twill breathe no more beneath the moon.
I woke, warmed neath a foreign sky
Where locust blossoms bud and die,
Strange birds called to me flashing by.
And dusky faces passed and woke
The echoes with the words they spoke-
-The same old tales as other folk.
A truce to roaming!Never more
Ill leave the home I loved of yore.
But strangers meet me at the door.
* * * * *
I left my home still travelling,
For yet I hear the strange birds sing,
And foreign flowers rare perfumes bring.
I hear a distant voice, more wise
Than others are neath foreign skies.
Ill find-perhaps in paradise.