Cecelia Aurora
(from Maximillion to his bride)
You are morning-
Sun and air,
Fresh and clean,
And somehow unaware.
Your beauty seems a fragile flower
Awakening anew,
Reborn with every dawning,
Bathed in the freshness of dew-
A baptismal legacy
Of the night from which you rise,
The stars still shining in your eyes
And a warmer star,
Nearer still,
Warms and dries
Drawing up the strength
That still is growing.
And you are morning
In the still hours moving
The sun across the sky
With slow patience
Reaching for the center of the Earth-
The Mother giving all and each birth.
The quiet time,
Transitory, moving in on day,
Gently, as if the hourglass
Could be willed to stop
For a moment between heartbeats,
Slowing down the swiftness of change
To the pace of the flower
From the seed taking its time
To push through the darkness
And the weight of the earth
And reach for the sun
In a slow gradual blooming-
Like the dawn peeking over
The rim of the world-
Soft colors,
Then fiery-
Taking the shape of the sun
In a wheel of glory.
Always new as each day's journey
Is burned
Away in the birth of another-
You are morning.