A Celebration of Women Writers

"I Watch Swift Pictures." by Isabel Ecclestone Mackay (1875-1928)
From: Fires of Driftwood. by Isabel Ecclestone Mackay. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, Limited, 1922, p. 24.

Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom

[Page 24] 

I Watch Swift Pictures

I WATCH swift pictures flash and fade
  On the closed curtains of my eyes,–
A bit of river green as jade
  Under green skies;

A single bird that soars and dips
  Remote; a young and secret moon
Stealing to kiss some flower's lips
  Too shy for noon;

A pointing tree; a lifted hill,
  Sun-misted with a golden ring,–
Were these once mine? And am I still
  Remembering?

A path that wanders wistfully
  With no beginning there nor here,
Nor special grace that it should be
  So sharply dear,

Unless,–what if when every day
  Is yesterday, with naught to borrow,
I may slip down this wistful way
  Into to-morrow?

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Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom