Desert Dweller

There is no room in any town (he said) To house the towering hugeness of my dream. It straitens me to sleep in any bed Whose foot is nearer than the night's extreme. There is too much of solitude in crowds For one who has been where constellations teem, Where boulders meet with boulders, and the clouds And hills convene; who has talked at evening With mountains clad in many-colored shrouds. Men pity me for the scant gold I bring: Unguessed within my heart the solar glare On monstrous gems that lit my journeying. They deem the desert flowerless and bare, Who have not seen above their heads unfold The vast, inverted lotus of blue air; Nor know what Flanging Gardens I behold With half-shut eyes between the earth and moon In topless iridescent tiers unrolled. For them, the planted fields, their veriest boon; For me, the verdure of inviolate grass In far mirages vanishing at noon. For them, the mellowed strings, the strident brass, The cry of love, the clangor of great horns, The thunder-burdened ways where thousands pass. For me, the silence welling from dark urns, From fountains past the utmost world and son... To overflow some day the desert bourns ... And take the sounding cities one by one.