Song for Saraswati

Goddess, from ignorance
of your voice, I have come
into a place by chance
where the thin grass-stems dance,
leaves return light’s glance,
no breath of life is dumb.

Here in an open space
is a love-song of land.
Light winds about it race,
so it breathes in its grace.
Here there is no trace
of a defiling hand.

That is all far away.
Now I hear breathe to me
here on your special day,
poetry in Earth’s play.
Such love for me lay
when I first came to be.

Goddess, I pray to you
in your benevolence,
let my art be as true
as if my breath were new.
Let me be lost too
into the elements,

part of the open glade,
this wind’s breath, as I may.
So a new singing’s made
and I return to shade.
I was yours, sweet maid,
for a life, for a day.