 Section zero of The Voices of the Rivers. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Voices of the Rivers by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. Dedication. Blessing the songs of old. Summoning forth the new. You, with a wand of gold, lent them a life more true. Now as their ways unfold out into vistas blue. Here stand the new and old. Giving themselves to you. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Love Song by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. Love. The shadow of thy face lies against my heart. Thy poor cherished counterpart in thy chosen place. Love. The echo of thy heart beats the whole night long. Like the rhythm of love's song from the sound apart. Deep within a lonely place, love, I wait apart with the echo of thy heart and the shadow of thy face. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Song by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. What a wealth of gold God hath spent on thee. Wanting thee of old for the sun to see. God saved all the gold for the years to be. Then, unloosed his hold, lavished all on thee. Made thee of the gold ages lost for thee. All the gold of old for the sun to see. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. A dream by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. I dreamed that all of earth was past. But heaven, I said, is lone and drear. Dearest, I could find peace at last if thou were't here, if thou were't near. For night is dark and full of fear. Dearest, I said, I wait afar. The light will come when thou art near, when thou art shining like a star. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. A song in the wood by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. Little bird in the lonely wood singing thy song by the way. Dear, I would say if I could, what thy passion of song would say. In the cloistered woodland apart where the spirits come to pray. Little bird with the great world's heart, thou hast said what man cannot say. Little bird in the sorrowful wood, art thou singing to make men weep. Dear, I would weep if I could, but the sorrow, it lies too deep. And men have taught sorrow to thee. They give thee their tears to keep. In the world's way for all to see they cannot tarry and weep. But thou in the lonely wood thou sendest the song forth free. Dear, we have borne all we could, but the utterance, we leave it to thee. Thou hast gathered the whole world's pain to blend with the joy that shall be. And man is grown whole again, and prisoned is wax and free. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Night Song by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. Alone at night's, beloved, when the world has gone to sleep. My heart, awake or dreaming, may turn to you and weep. I open to you, beloved, a door within my heart. The bars of it burst asunder, and the portals roll apart. And out of my heart I send you, free from its bond and stress. The spirit of my sorrow and utter loneliness. And all my love I send you, that would not stir nor weep, till night had come, beloved. And the world had gone to sleep. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Spring Song by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. We too, in a strange land, sing my love. We too, in a strange land, in the spring. And spring is the same in every land. Sing my love. We too, hand in hand, skies above. We too, and hand in hand, let us sing. And buds will bend to a foreign hand from boughs above. We too, in a strange land, and above and around, on every hand, only spring. And spring is spring in every land. And love is love. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Him at the dawn by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. Tis thou in a glory of blue, in a golden triumph of skies, shedding the dawn and the dew, and the infinite gaze of thine eyes. There, where thy smile looks through, where the cloud lips part in surprise, I have found the joy of thee too. I have said to the tears and the sighs, Depart for ye are not true. Take rest for ye are not wise. I have seen thy smile look through, and the infinite joy in thine eyes. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. The World's Joy by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. Joy to the utter most ends of the earth, to the infinite spaces, joy. Sing, sing louder ye singers of men, ye blessed of God, whose birth was bidden of old, and known to the sea and the sky, even then, when the World's first song went up in a wonder of joy, no grief could ever alloy. And the world was bound in magnificent girth, from end to end with joy. Sing, sing louder ye singers of men, ye blessed of God, whose birth was set for the holding of joy, whose voice shall be singing then, when the World's last song shall go up in a passion of joy that death shall never destroy. Joy to the utter most ends of the earth, to the infinite spaces, joy. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. The Hope by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. Thou shalt be locked in my heart forever. Thou shalt be holy and pure. These things I know of thee, and these be only of all things. Sure, thou shalt be found when the way is over. Thou shalt be mine at the goal. These things I hope of thee, since death draws surely. Soul unto soul. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Peace by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. New life with a soft light glowing, and a song sung deep in the soul, that faltered once, and is flowing, was torn before, and is whole, unbound, unmeasured, unending, the largeness we longed to know, the silence we dreamed impending, and trembled in storm below. Dear heart, grown one with the wonder, grown verily part of the peace around and above us and under, that sighs with a sound of release, I feign would fold around thee, arms so gentle and strong, they should hold with the strength that bound thee, the peace, and wonder, and song. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Villanelle by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. Oh, God, as to why such woe must be. He was my light, my very dawn of day. This one shall comfort us, I said. Ah, me, I look at life now, once a strong glad sea flashed sudden backward with quick dismay. Ah, God, thou knowest why such woe must be. I said, the years can tear me not from thee. I dreamed their flight made firm the bond for I. This one shall comfort us, I said. Ah, me, but this we know, that only God can see, while we grope, blindfold, in an unknown way. Ah, God, thou knowest why such woe must be and why the heart's high rapture, risen free, should fall unto the ravenous past for prey. This one shall comfort us, I said. Ah, me, and blind we bow before the sure decree. Oh, this all serves a steadfast end, we say. Ah, God, thou knowest why such woe must be. This one shall comfort us, I said. Ah, me. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Rondo by Nina Salomon, read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. I follow you along the whole dim way and all the night through till the break of day, and all the day long till the deepening blue, until the darkness where the stars look through, finding in all the shadows no dismay, the soul's sight and the star's sight grow for I the clearer for the gloom wherein they stray. So where the stars look and the soul sees too, I follow you, though dense the shadow where the sunshine lay, though dark the sorrow over joy's array, till this the starry sight of heaven is due, for that the sight of souls is grown more true, so let the dark enfold us as it may. I follow you. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Evening Song of the Earth by Nina Salomon, read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. Ah, me, the sun is down, the sun is down, day of the golden morn, thou to a kingdom born, oh, day, thy crown. Ah, me, I loved thee so, I loved thee so, read with the dawn of thee, waking to ecstasy warm in thy glow. Ah, me, but thou wasst fair, but thou wasst fair, night was so long and cold, oh, but thy blaze of gold wrought wonder there, twas over soon, twas over soon. There is thy glimmering shroud, thy pale enfolding cloud, and a one moon. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. The Ninth of Ab by Nina Salomon, read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. The Ninth of Ab, the anniversary of the destruction of Jerusalem, by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BCE, and by Titus in 70 CE. He hath not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger. Lamentations, chapter 2, verse 1. Hast thou forgotten forever? Lord, thou art silent so long. Hast thou forgotten? Oh, master, forgotten our day of disaster, our life that is barren of song? Hast thou forgotten forever? Why art thou silent so long? Thou, sitting thrown on the heavens with earth lying prone at thy feet, if thou have ceased to remember, tread out our flame till the ember lie cold and the gloom be complete, look once from thy throne on the heavens and crush out the life at thy feet. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Realization by Nina Salomon, read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. He will sing no more for you. He will sing no more. He is still by the soul's whole yearning will he sing no more for you. Though joys of the soul be few and this be the dearest one, though the soul's chief joy be gone, he will sing no more for you. He will sing no more for you in the sweet low shade where he sang, where you dream that the dim leaves hang. He will sing no more for you, where the night weeps tears of dew for the woe which the sweetness brings, though he stands forever and sings. He will sing no more for you. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Yesterday by Nina Salomon, read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. Would that my life had stayed at yesterday, that time, ground weary, might have rested there, or could today but live, nor pass for I, nor I be sought and found not anywhere, so that I yet might say, for joy was yesterday. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. The Soul's Flight by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. Come to me, soul of my love, over the endless lands. Soul the tot, swifter than thought, worlds and the mazes thereof, holding the knot with bands, counting as less than nought. For the soul's wings over the waist flash, while a moment stands, while a world's heartbeat is whole. A flutter of wings in haste, a reaching forth of hands. And thy soul is here with my soul. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. From me to thee by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. Children's hymn. My glad heart gives thanks to thee, Lord, our Lord. My full heart would say to thee some sweet word. All I have thou givest me. I can give only praise that sings in me while I live. Let it but seem good to thee when I pray, when my song comes into thee day by day. Thou wilt take the song from me, Lord above. My small song sent forth from me, made of love. Great glad songs go up to thee, God most dear. Worlds of song, yet this from me. Thou wilt hear. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. On Wings by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. All we saw and heard, born on the seas, Saw great waters bearing on their wings, Full laden ships. Heard great winds that carried on their wings, More and more wings, Wings of seabirds flying with the waves, And winds and sails forth to some port. We know not how, nor where, more than we know. Thou and I, wither we go, And how, and to what end, Born on our own winged souls, On winds and seas, Wings upon wings. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Freedom in Exile by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. When Thou waitest far away from thine lonely home, And the clouds like foam fill the valleys, Floating all the day, Closing in thy sight, Thou upon the height yet shalt send thy sight, Where once the valleys lay, When thou hearest not a sound from the lands below, And the drifts of snow fill the hollows, Which the sun had found, Shutting in thy soul, Thou hast yet the whole of thy living soul, To send it forth unbound. Thou shalt make thy sight as vast as the heavens light, As the sun, whose sight o'er the mountains, Finds the plain at last, Like the boundless air shall thy spirit fare, Passing like the air, While mountains hold thee fast. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Song by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. If Thou wart mine, And sun and moon were darkened, We should have light. It would not be the day as we have known it, Not day nor night. There is a radiance other than the morning, Or a white moonlight. If Thou wart mine, And wakeful birds were silent, We should have song. We seek not now the singers of the forest, Who sang so long, For we have harkened, And the soul's high places are full of song. Love, Thou art sleeping, Canst Thou hear me singing deep in my heart? We hear in dreams, While in the outer stillness woods have no part, Since Thou wart mine, And song have made his dwelling safe in the heart. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. The Sunflower and the Sun by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. So is the sunflower wedded to the sun, Grown from great love to likeness, Grown to burn with golden splendour From her place beneath. So stands she radiant, Lifting eyes that turn a lifelong gaze to him, Till life be done and she falls sunward, Worshipping in death. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Loss by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. Where is he that went away? How long the day? Where is he who could not stay? Let us seek him while we may. Seek him ere the light grows grey. How long the day? What we do he will not know. How long the day? And he sees not how we go, If in peace or if in woe, Sees not when the light is low. How long the day? All our work must cease at last. How low the light? On his strength our load was cast. In his hands he held it fast. All the joy of it is past. How near the night? End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. The Song of a Night by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. Thank God for stars. Thank God for night at last. Such night with stars to give the darkness eyes. Oh, could the soul find voice in any wise, While every night was blind before the blast, When every night was mad with tempest cries, When heaven's face was utterly withdrawn, And night seemed dark beyond all power of dawn? Could soul cast song against the deafened skies? Thank God for stars again and watch them mourn. What shall the day be born of such a night? Flushing of skies and glow of gradual light? Heart, save thy singing till the day is born. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Love and the passing year by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. My love for thee is like the growing spring, When day by day the flowers and songs awake, Only when love doth out of silence break, It flowers forever and ceaseth not to sing. My love for thee is like the sudden joy When summer rises up with swift a beat of life, And glow of colour and passing heat, But love burns on and suffers no alloy. My love for thee is like the autumn glow, That lingers on the leaves for many days, But love looks golden all along the ways, And sheds no golden leaf of long ago. My love for thee is like the days that strive To still the earth without spread snow above. But underneath the quiet whiteness, Love burns like a flame to keep the world alive. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Moonlight by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. My thoughts fly back to thee, Whose voice of old wakened the sleeping music of my song. How long, how long, Over that strain of song the years have rolled? This night is shining like a silver day, And little clouds are playing with the moon. But soon, ah, soon, Before the day the moon must sink away. Yet, softly, for a space, Between the light returns the wonder of the olden spell. Farewell, farewell, Now dawn must break the spell with sound and sight. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Winter Song by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. Quiet and cold, the waning winter's day. Bright at the morn, at even time grows grey. And grey, the even time without a breath, Fades to the night away. And silence falls, and darkness, With no place for sound or starlight, Nor for any grace. And what shall save the darkening soul from death? Let me see thy face. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. After Storm by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. Peace come to you, oh tempest-stricken heart. Peace fall upon you out of stormy skies. Whisper a word to you, and shade your eyes, And make for you a quietude apart. Sleep come to you, like arms of one you love closing about you. When the morn breaks through, ah, many things shall long have passed from you. And gently, one new hope begin to move. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Into the Presence by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. Last night, me thought I slept not, yet I dreamed. Last night, I dreamed I bore thee up to God, Wandering the wild. What is this new strength wherewith I bear thee, Sleeping in mine arms up to God's presence? And I said, I know the spirit of man is stronger than himself, Stronger to bear and battle and fulfil, To rise up longing and to triumph last. Is it not written in an ancient word too great to be forgotten? Sayeth it not, and lo, a spirit uplifted me? Yea, so my spirit lifted thee and held thee safe, Sleeping, and so I bore thee up to God. Soon came we wondrously to where great rays fell From some mighty splendour more than sun, Pureer than any moon, and yet I flew fearless Towards the radiance, yet I stood half-floating In the fullness of great rays, and suddenly I spake. Thou hid from man behind a gloom And from the soul of man behind a wonder of eternal light. Oh, thou that lookest on the face of man While he perceiveeth not, lest he, perceiving, Should perish of the sudden dawning day. Oh, thou that lookest long on some one face, Lingering upon it till it wakeeth, Lit by some new glow. Some strange deep radiance which men call holiness. Oh, God, I said, Lord, Lord, Look thou upon this one I love. Is not this one right, goodly? Shall not he dwell in thy sight forever? Yea, on earth, show unto men The shining of thy face shed full upon him? Lord, for this I come, Now bearing upward to the light of thee This one that sleepeth, And the light streamed down more gently Than the darkness falls below More softly than the tender darkness falls And sank into our souls, Thy soul and mine, And yet a space I stood there With closed eyes, Feeling the whole of heaven overspread With glory waxin' unendurable, Till thankfully I turned with thee, And straight along a way of light I bore thee down, And laid thee sleeping in thy place. And thou, oh, wilt thou know how once On one dim night when stars sang softly Like a whispered word, I came to thee, I bore thee in mine arms upward And upward to yon highest height, Whence the great rays roll down That light the world with all at half Of radiance. Nay, let it be, Only I know my spirit bore thee Once into God's presence living Through the night up to the very Inmost place of God. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. A Mood in the Silence by Nina Salomon Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. Let us be quiet now. Let all the voice be of calm waters While the silence sings Like a vast rumour of unheard of things That know not grief, nor dream how men rejoice. The low hills love the silence. In the haze they dream of what the sea Is murmuring in dim reverberance. Some hidden thing the sea learns From its heavenward endless gaze. These things hold perfect knowledge. Low, the sea, the hills all satisfied forever. Low, the full sun seeeth, And the great winds know. And these things are While we but strive to be. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. The Power of the Spirit by Nina Salomon Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. Lord, let me know the power of the spirit. Oh Lord, let me know if In its darkest hour on the prisoning earth below The spirit be captive and bound with the body To beat at its walls till death with the clamour of sound It shall hear not the heaven that calls. Shall it sink in the darkness and fail And be joined to the ruin of life? Is the striving of none avail And the hope that lives in the strife? What of the spirit, oh Lord, Shall it wait and be never aware? Wilt thou not send it a word from the highest Where truth is laid bare? For hope that hath no defender Lives on for a word from thee. Oh God, it will never surrender. Tis mighty and sure and free. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Of Prayer by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. Out of the depths I call thee. What were life lacking such solace to its lonely pain? How could the dumb hearts suffer And sustain the sorrow and the bitterness and strife And know the gloom and dream not of the light? They watching for the morning wait not so Not as the soul waits Yearning from its woe upward To some unknown unending height And though no sign nor help come And no voice nor any knowledge From the silent peak Trustfully from its pain the soul shall speak Out of the depths I call thee And rejoice. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. A Farewell by Nina Salomon. Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist. Farewell. This is the last, oh heart, the end. Oh heart, thou knowest all the blessedness And what the joy was, moon-like through the years, Adding dear rays along the darkness here In through the lattice of this poor world life. How wilt thou go alone, oh heart, alone When there is never a path to lead thee on And never a star to draw thee, holding thee Lest thou look earthward all the lonely way Mourn for thee as though more truly dead Had the cold earth closed o'er thy pale brow For so thy throwned spirit from its height Would look down, star-like, on the old dim world On the wild waves there rolling in the gloom And light them still with thy soul-silver path And when the stars sing low at even time My soul would hear thee in their blended strain With naught between us save what soul might cleave Nay, but I mourn for thee as passed away so utterly We were not more apart if both of us were shrouded High and thou, high in a lower world And thou so high I could not see thee And the world between Wilt thou not come to me, how ere I call How shall I find thee through the whole dense world I longed for thee as men have longed for peace And found it never since the years began I longed for thee and lo, I found thee once And clasped thy spirit closely unto mine And fed the hunger of my soul with thee And filled my life with thee and held Thou blessed what men had found not since the years began And suddenly the dark fell and the want And shall the soul behold thee not and live Shall not the spirit fail for lack of thee Oh, should it send thee one last yearning cry One last long call before the silent end Wilt thou not come to me the dense world through Nay, for thou knowest not of darkness here Seeing the radiance round thee As the moon looking for long her beams at her shed light And know if not the glamour as her own I deem it sometimes all a woeful dream The horror of the parting and the void And all the long-lone wasteness of the way And pause a moment, breathless for the end Eager to seize upon the keen swift joy Should I wake wondering, tis enough Farewell End of poem This recording is in the public domain A Dream of Peace by Nina Salomon Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist Here in the mystery of moonlit night Let us forget at last Let us forget the world life whirling past The heat and light And let us dream The stars hold not each one A beating burning heart like To her great world's heart that throbs apart A far alone And let us dream our world is grown So still and solitary and far And dimly songful like another star Some space to fill that needed only one more gentle light One sweet note, more of sound To make a silence of star voices Round the endless height wither the spirit All its days shall yearn With straining wings bound fast Wither some night shall lift it up at last Beyond return End of poem This recording is in the public domain Drifting by Nina Salomon Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist Ocean of sorrow, weariness of waves And we too drifting as the winds shall please Blind with the vast bewilderment above Finding in depths below a world of graves But never a grave for love among all these Nor anywhere a resting place for love Can it be that any winding girth Of such unrestful paths indeed shall bring us to Through very longing to the bliss And is not love a name too near to earth And is not rapture but too small a thing To name thereby the wordless wonder of this And dimly drawn by some remote moonlight And driven blindly by the unbound sea Shall we at last find Even the same sure place? Shall we at last find Past the end of night The rock to stand on to eternity Clasped close in one deep, passionate embrace End of poem This recording is in the public domain Darkness by Nina Salomon Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist Lord, foul hast led me where two lifeways part And bound mine eyes, so that I know not Sunset nor sunrise, nor which path drew me Blinded at the start, to walk therein With overshadowed heart that never knew the skies If both roads lead to darkness Be it so, but on the way Only a little light, Lord, just to say Before the silence I have seen And lo, the path was good to walk in And I know the shining of the day End of poem This recording is in the public domain Awakening by Nina Salomon Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist This is the best, the highest Hear the soul standeth Surveying all its earthly strife Hear stands the soul at last And looks at life and sees a right Love's throne above the whole Mighty and terrible low This is love Calm and triumphant Or the woe of things Love giving thanks for what the sorrow brings Singing, out singing all that sing thereof So is love known at last The soul How long beheld love enter But to tear the breast that gave it shelter Witnessed love oppressed with chains And heartbreak and all grievous wrong But lo, the day came when the soul Awake from dreaming of a love that was a part of earth New love's own largeness Since no heart might strive to hold it But that heart must break Then turned the soul and rose to look on love Whom never heart could hold and still be whole Where, calm beyond the striving of the soul Love stands triumphant while the ages move Hear, giving all and asking not again The soul grew one with love in realms untrod Where love was verily become as God God whom the heaven of heavens may not contain End of poem This recording is in the public domain The Immortal World by Nina Salomon Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist Sestina I heard the world self once sent forth in sound Uttered in sound that ceased not any more That found no silence all the ages long And knew no death forever But unheard of all things hearing Lived beyond all space where no star looks Nor light of any world So journeyed these, the voices of the world In mighty companies of living sound out To remote, undreamed of, bounds of space And these went sounding forth forever more Towards the darkness till the great unheard infinity Lay all their ways along for lo The sound of lips all earth along All cries sent forth of sorrow in the world Though each rose far from each And all unheard one of the other Every uttered sound of pain sent forth These met and evermore sped in one host Together into space And voices of great joy that made for space Though strange lands lay between them wide and long These, born asunder, held apart no more In one glad army journeyed from the world And in one host of sound, akin to sound These went resounding into realms unheard So all world voices living Though unheard of all else living Rising into space immeasurable From some like calls of sound Sorrow or joy or triumph Passed along where flashed the living light From world to world Each calls an army waxing more and more And when the light of worlds forevermore Was left afar and all their voice unheard When all these throngs arisen from the world Had fled beyond the whirling ways of space These manifold the star-strewn paths along Became each separate host a single sound And so with sound grown pure forevermore All ages long like one man's soul Unheard of bounded space Sang the immortal world End of poem This recording is in the public domain A Breach by Nina Salomon Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist Shall it not cease? Nay Nay It cannot cease Or shall it fail or fade or ever die? Pain for a joy whose memory is a sigh Shall it do ought but evermore increase? Many days it shall not be destroyed Since these but make a wider severing It cannot cease Nor comfort ever spring out of the years That span the widening void As in a lone land when a lone bird sings He that toils onward pauses in his stress To grasp the joy and feels the loneliness Grow faster with the vanishing of wings End of poem This recording is in the public domain The unattainable by Nina Salomon Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist I will go forth beyond the endless ages Further than hope and tears I will unlock the dark eternal portals The dumb lips of the years The past half-spoken And her lingering echo Fills all we hold of life And all the future is a vast foreboding Of tears and hope and strife But I will break the stifling bonds asunder Yay, now I will take flight I will go forth and know the living stillness That whispers in the night Ye shall not be forgotten All ye glories passing with soundless feet Ye shall be with me yet ye wonder voices Blended and made more sweet I cannot reach a limit to the vistas Beyond the vanished sphere Now I have only you ye singing voices Mystic and vague and dear Now ye are all to me that life has given Are ye not nearer so? I reach not But the world is still Whose clamour turned you away in woe I have gone forth towards your tender sources Too far and high and true And ye are mine which were mine always Saving now I have only you End of poem This recording is in the public domain Rain by Nina Salomon Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist Like rain upon the mown grass Tears, always tears from eve to even tears Tis mourn, O heaven, and thou art weeping still Lord, Lord, thy terrible pity Maketh sears in our worn heart Whereon the labouring years Have wrought their furrows of sufficient ill In the beginning thou hast said of us Lo, man shall suffer sorrow all his days Finding no light except he find it thus Seeking in woe far vistas luminous Reaching the triumph but through grievous ways Yet thou hast shed o'er us thy pity's rain Thou, who hast bidden that these things should be Saying so, man, assured not of the gain Unmindful of the wonder past the pain Yet shall strive on So be it, woe is me Nay, but we know Nay, Lord, but we have seen how For the joys' sake Thou hast made the woe How for the light's sake all the gloom hath been How from the stress man's soul shall rise serene This is the joy of striving and the glow Only thy pity, Lord, it rendeth yet With one more wound our courage still unsure For when our anguish and thy pain have met Seeing thy pity, what if we forget the joy That made us mighty to endure? End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Past Days Recalled by Nina Salomon Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist What is this woe between my love and you That looks back dreaming then turns onward dumb? Nay, what have we to do with this? We too, even now my heart spake Turn thee, she is here, she, Haloed in the distance, she has come And lo, I see, and you are very near And all around our peace seemed undefiled Can we not then well lie forgetfulness Surely in that brief look you almost smiled I gave my soul the sight of you to keep That mine eyes, turning from the sorrow's stress May look therein and find you Graven deep. End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. The Souls Bondage by Nina Salomon Read for LibriVox.org by Ian King and Newgate Novelist Man holding converse with his soul Seaward, seaward, come o' my soul Like a bird. Death riseth up Has thou heard? Death, and thou hast not stirred Seaward, seaward, save thee my soul Like a bird. Gooding me close around, me that am soul of thee Me that looked to be free, that looked to be free And ambound. Gooding with pitiless grasp Bond's more bitter than death Stifling the life and the breath Till the song shall end in a gasp Death, let him hasten impaled Of a will that is warring with life Let him come but to silence the strife Of wings unendurably held Seaward, seaward, my soul Mine only one, I that have thee alone I cry to thee, let us be gone Seaward, seaward, my soul Mine only one Pressing upon me sore, me that am soul of thee Let him fixed in thine hope to be Living forevermore Life made grievous to bear Shall I verily battle for this Nor turn where the strong death is To the spirit sleeping there? Shall I not call them blessed Wrapped in a secret wonder Body and soul asunder Heart hushed deeply to rest? Seaward, seaward Turn thee, my soul, and fly God made for thee wings and a sky God knoweth thou should not die Seaward, seaward Turn, oh my soul, and fly I that am fine and gods I am held with terrible hands I am burdened with iron bands I am bruised with brazen rods Tis life from a poisonous cup For me that am soul of thee Me that am winged for this sea Yet how the life leaps up Yay, I am thine And lo, I live because thou hast cried Because thou hast not beside And shall I forsake thee so? Seaward, seaward, my soul My soul, we have fled God looked not to find thee dead And how shall God be gained said? Seaward, seaward My living soul, we have fled Nay, if I that live and am bound Can give for thine asking ought Love and wonder and thought Whispers of wonderful sound Thou shalt suffer the sorrow of me Thou shalt bear the unbearable chain Thou shalt long with the whole world's pain For spaces and spaces of sea If death with my life must be met Death that would give me release If thou callest me back from peace Thou hast chosen I fail not yet But thou choosest thee all these things To know what this is to me To dream of the sky and the sea Looking seaward with powerless swings Seaward, seaward To look and be denied To know how heaven is wide Rather than thou had died Rather than God defied To be winged for the endless tide Seaward, seaward Winged and chained And denied End of poem. This recording is in the public domain. Every voice that wants to see and know forever Every voice that sings amid the whole Vague consciousness of things Inevitable knowledge grown in me Might then be still I would not turn again I would not call for those things which were gone Seeing I knew this thing This only one I would not flinch Though wonder died in pain Oh God Tis very grievous still to live And still say What is me I cannot know To find no sign forever That will show whether this is Or is not Still to give less heed to flying day And furtive night Than to some dim persuasive lips That hope with passionate insistence Onto hope saying It is elsewhere for life and light Tis bitter when mourns sayeth Though hope be fled Shall not the mere bright mourns Rise for thee? Yet while the dawn voice Speaketh audibly Shall doubt come striving For the words unsaid Triumph ye many mourns without alloy When doubt falls prostrate At the rapture's feet Oh God The joy of life is very sweet Lord Lord, forgive The life alone is joy End of poem This recording is in the public domain The Burial of Queen Victoria by Nina Salomon Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist February 2nd 1901 Tall fourth, ye tongues within a hundred towers And roll our sorrow through the wintry air Speak for us We are silent We that bear weeping Our burden heaped with futile flowers We bear her fourth Tall softly Have we said all that the heart can say Though death is past Though death that feared to strike Have struck at last Have we yet taught our hearts that she is dead? We looked to her like children There on high she sat forever We beheld her thus, unthinking Yet the faith abode with us She is a mighty queen She will not die We bear her sleeping to her holy bed Who bore up heavy kingdoms in her hands Trembling, we bear her now along her lands She was a mighty queen And she is dead A mother is immortal to her son She was our mother Knew we otherwise Half a child knowledge that a mother dies She was a great world mother and is gone Tall, louder, high, and tongues Our hearts are lead Beat for us hearts within a hundred towers She was our queen and mother She was ours She was a valiant woman She is dead We bear her to her chosen resting place Here she will lie in builded sepulchre Told gently Now the hope is come to her Withholding through the glorious lonely days Here she shall rest Who knew devoid of dread One deathless triumph Mid the fleeting throng She lost eye But she loved her whole life long Here is her crown Tall not She is not dead End of poem This recording is in the public domain Friendship and Hope by Nina Salomon Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist As win two friends by soulful kinship bound In all enduring trust of wax and old And one upon his life-grasp Lucith Hold And yet the other, safely walled around Is suffered of that death to hear no sound Lest he, remaining, should deem life too cold And know a silence ere the end is told And paths left lonely ere his goal be found So, when hope dies from one of two joined souls Let not the living hope hear ought thereof Nor look on that bare sea where they too swam Lest o'er the waves and past the weary shoals It gaze forlorn and say It is enough Let me die also Seeing how lone I am End of poem This recording is in the public domain The World's Burden by Nina Salomon Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist I stood with God beyond the world So high that all the worlds lay Less than stars in space But every one from his appointed place Strove upward with one movement like a sigh And through that strife of stars so far Even I beheld the old world at the olden pace Journeying, turning, seeking for God's face Through unendurable, unending sky Above, afar with God low There I knew freedom, unborn on earth in any spring Freedom, undreamed where men all yoked of yore Had never heeded how the burden grew But bent to earth had borne unquestioning And I in freedom longed to bear once more So sending memory through the ways below I spake, O thou to whom all stars A strain to reach thee Seem to turn and strive in vain Yorn star is that one world whereof I know the life and joy, the burden of its woe But knowing I discerned not And again, at dawn of understanding I am vain yet to endure a moment Let me go Then wondrously the thronging worlds were passed All which had found a nearer place with God Between him and the world he would not call With toil to force the gates of air At last I entered where time's laboured footsteps trod And felt yet once the load of each for all And this I saw The freedom learnt before with God Had passed to memory like a dream That shed its glamour dreamlike In a gleam on all the darkness in the world of yore And this I knew The load which all men bore Each his own burden And the vague supreme weight of the world on all Had grown to seem the hope of all the world forevermore For each man bearing every one his load And every one the burden for his kind Even so, and only thus The old world raised its head and looked at God And strove and stood where it had risen to stand With leagues behind conquered So I returned to God and praised End of poem, this recording is in the public domain This is Hope by Nina Salomon Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist I knew a bird once in a far-off spring It sang and sang as though it would not die For very love of living But it died And all the trees in all the gardens round Heard it no more And still within my heart It sings and sings as though it could not die And thus it lives And so man's self shall live Among all things remembering This is Hope End of poem, this recording is in the public domain The voices of the rivers by Nina Salomon Read for LibriVox.org by Newgate Novelist My spirit would not rest for a love of thee It panted after thee It would not rest It seemed a spirit in continual quest Like the unresting flood that seeks the sea My spirit sought the waters of thy soul Past riversides where water lilies lie Past quiet banks where river rushes sigh Towards the mighty ocean moving whole My soul hath found thy soul We hear a sound of rivers rushing in from all the world A thunderous sound of many waters hurled on to the soundless sea Our souls hath found We have not rest We have not always peace We cannot hear what all the voices say We have not help enough And all the day the voices of the rivers never cease Thou who hast called my soul to be with thine In mingled silence Harkening to the strife of voices Thou whose life is all my life Shall these be silent ere the day decline When night allureth with a mystic moon We know a hush will fall on every voice But while the light lasts shall not these rejoice Nor look on peace when darkness comes so soon My soul upon the ocean loving thee Would have no turmoil of the rivers round Would find for these what our two streams have found A dwelling place on one eternal sea End of poem, this recording is in the public domain And end of The Voices of the Rivers