Onward Keep

Onward keep! Forget the self that cried:
  “This world’s a forest choked with ice and snow;
No spark of fire through it can ever ride,
  No human flame in it can ever glow.”
And keeping onward, now, I find
  The golden leaves of yesterday
All safely hidden from the wind
  Beneath the snow that melts away,
And on the shivering boughs
  New leaves and tender sprout;
They crown the winter’s brows,
  And laugh away his doubt.
          And in the brook
            The echoes of
          What I forsook⁠—
            What I did love.
          And the frost
            ’Neath the breath
          Of me must
            Welcome death;
          And the heat
            Left behind
          Guides the feet
            Of the blind.
          Onward keep;
          Laugh and weep;
            Pain and joy
          Hide and peep.
            Rise and fall⁠—
          Fall and rise;
            This is all⁠—
          This is wise.