Beat the bell and call us all together!
         Bone and brain, nerve and vein—
                   mystery cells of the soul and its supports.

Oh, heart, don't give the earth another coin—
         swim steady as the music of the bees
                    and climb the echo-hours till the dawn.

My hands, be careful how you tell the tale,
          how you fray your palms—a love, a loss, a choosing,
                    branching on the skin, calligraphy of days.

My eyes, be strong, and speed the soaring tree,
          take the desert stars and seize them fast,
                    be sturdy and swear truly, oh my eyes.

And oh, my woods and earth, my craggy secret hopes,
          be kind and let the ants build high their summer towers,
                    their Troys and Babylons of sand and spit.

Let our fall be the flutter of the redstart slipping through saplings,
          the fall of the petal at the close of spring, the fall of Shiva
                    dancing for the end, oh my world, dancing for the end.