Meeting Ourselves

We met ourselves as we came back As we hiked the trail from the north. Our foot-prints mixed in the rainy path Coming back and going forth. The prints of my comrade’s hob-nailed shoes And my tramp shoes mixed in the rain. We had climbed for days and days to the North And this was the sum of our gain: We met ourselves as we came back, And were happy in mist and rain. Our old souls and our new souls Met to salute and explain— That a day shall be as a thousand years, And a thousand years as a day. The powers of a thousand dreaming skies As we shouted along the trail of surprise Were gathered in our play: The purple skies of the South and the North, The crimson skies of the South and the North, Of tomorrow and yesterday.