Everything Promised Him to Me

(A Spring Motif, from the St. Petersburg Series, 1904
by Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva, 1871-1955, Russian
printmaker; image found at thebluelantern)

“For one human being to love another is perhaps the most difficult of our tasks; the ultimate, the last test and proof: the work for which all the other work is but preparation.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), Austrian poet

EVERYTHING PROMISED HIM TO ME

Everything promised him to me:
the fading amber edge of the sky,
and the sweet dreams of Christmas,
and the wind at Easter, loud with bells,

and the red shoots of the grapevine,
and waterfalls in the park,
and the two large dragonflies
on the rusty iron fencepost.

And I could only believe
that he would be mine
as I walked along the high slopes,
the path of burning stones.

~ Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966), Russian poet