Roxanna Panufnik - Celestial Bird

O sweet and luminous Bird
Having once heard your call, lovely and shy
I shall be hungry for the finished word
Across the windy sky

Of all voiced longing and all music heard
I spread my net for your bewildering wings
But wings are wiser than the swiftest hands
Where a bird sings

I held my heart, in fear that it would break
I called you through the grief of whip-poor-wills
I watched you on the avenues that make
A radiant city on the western hills

Yet since I knew you not, I sought in vain
I called you beauty for its fleet white sound
But now in my illuminated heart
I can rеlease the hound

Of lovе upon whose bruising leash I strain
Oh, he will grasp you where you skim the sod
Nor wound your breast, for love is soft as death
Swifter than beauty is, and strong as God