Sol 5.6

  1. Could it be my sin that I raised—

    you—and rose to the heavens?

  2. And on your wing—or on my own

    wing—I climbed to purity?

  3. Whether it was truth or dream,

    it was a leap toward the light,

  4. my liberation from all that

    Adam’s clay has wrought within the blood.

  5. Could it be my sin that I set—

    you above my throne in splendor,

  6. then knelt in the sanctuary of your—

    holiness, worshipping this loveliness?

  7. Could it be my sin that I

    take refuge in you from every ill,

  8. and see you as my well-being, then

    humbly implore you, seeking healing from you?

  9. Could it be my sin that I see—

    you as a spark that lit my heart,

  10. and sense that your inspiration, from on high,

    came to me alone, passing all earth’s people by?

  11. Could it be my sin that in you are

    bound consolation and hope,

  12. and to you go the heart’s complaint, the soul’s secret—

    whisper—all of it—and its cry?

  13. Could it be my sin that your love

    is my shield against the world?

  14. For if you are pleased, then all its favor

    and all its wrath are alike.

  15. Could it be my sin? What sin

    is mine, except faithfulness?

  16. I loved you passionately and sought no

    reward for my love.

  17. He whose grief is my grief will bear

    whatever a beloved may choose to do.

  18. A lover may indeed be wronged, yet

    for love he sees no one as having done wrong.

  19. Once I possessed a pride

    in my passion, and a refuge.

  20. If my bough bent beneath adversity,

    I braced my strength with our meeting.

  21. Have you forgotten how I forgot, O

    world? Let oblivion sweep the world away!

  22. Ah, love! I have no dawn

    but your love—and no evening.

  23. Are the soaring heights of dreams and the

    tender ideals only motes of dust?

Sol 5.6