Rey Sanidad - Thinking about you...

What shall I do with all the days and hours
That must be counted when I see your face?
How shall I charm the interval that lowers
Between this time and that sweet time of grace?

Shall I in slumber bend each weary sense,
Weary with longing? ...shall I flee away
Into past days, and with some fond pretense
Cheat myself to forget the present day?

Shall love for you lay on my soul the sin
Of casting from me God's great gift of time?
Shall I, these mists of memory locked within,
Leave and forget life's purposes sublime?

O, how or by what means may I contrive
To bring the hour that brings you nearer?
How may I teach my drooping hope to live
Until that blessed time, and you are here?

I'll tell you; for your sake I will lay hold
Of all good aims, and offer to you,
In worthy deeds, each moment that is told
While you, beloved one! are far from me.

For you I will arouse my thoughts to try
All heavenward flights, all high and holy strains;
For my dear sake I will walk patiently
Through these long hours, nor call their minutes pains.

I will this dreary blank of absence make
A noble experience; and will therein strive
To follow excellence, and to overtake
More good than I have won for a lifetime.

So may this doomed time build up in me
A thousand graces, which shall then be yours;
So may my love and longing be sacred,
And your dear thought a holy influence.

Rey Sanidad

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/thinking-about-you-21/