From between the trees and far away

Came a muffled cry, as the first of day
Bled slowly into the last of night
That had crouched in fear from my campfire light
The cry had freed me from my place
’Tween sleep and wake, an empty space
And as I opened eyes to see

What caused the cry that set me free

Your form I found, that hid behind

Such light so bright as to leave me blind

I had to revere you with a fast-turned head

And eyes that closed ‘til the light was dead

I felt it rise, but it did not die

As your feathered body began to fly

And up into the clouds you flew

‘Til the light was dim and your shadow blue

Upon the formless, snow-laid ground

As perfect blue as ever found

I stood and watched in the morning light

As you made your far-advancing flight

I knew there then that I could not be
Until your heart belonged to me

And I set out in the spreading dawn
With naught not follow but shadow and song

For from your feathered form so bright

Came a tune that turned the day to night

And night to day, and so it’s said

Could kill the living and wake the dead

And so your bird-shadow I followed on

Like a frightened hare or a motherless fawn

A lonely wolf or a sorely lost child

Who both offer their grief in a call of the wild

For I knew that what you held with such beauty and grace
Was such love, a light so bright as to make me turn my face

And I’ll follow your bird-shadow on, as long as I can see

Until at last your loving heart belongs to only me.