The Lion and the Rose by May Sarton

Vision is locked in stone,
The lion in the air is gone
With the great lion of the sun.
The sky is wild and cold.
The tawny fire is gone,
The hill where love did open like a rose
Is black. It snows....

God of the empty room,
Your will be done. Your will be done:
Now shines the inward sun,
The beating heart that glows
Within the skeleton,
The magic rose, the purer living gold,
Shine now, grown old.

All that is young and bold,
The lion's roar, the flaming skin and wild,
Unearthly peace now cherish and enfold
And fresh sleep overcome,
That in this death-in-life, delicate, cold,
The spiritual rose
Flower among the snows —
The love surpassing love.