Nancy Campbell

NOW I am like the earth—

I can give food;

And you, my little one, look to me only.

We are so little separate, you and I—

Still your growth comes of me,

And my strength makes you strong.

Now I am like the earth—

I can give birth to flowers, and nourish them.

Happy the house

That goes a-tiptoe when the evening comes,

And says, “Hush, hush—

He sleeps!”

Happy the house that may not lie too long

Of mornings;

Little cries of hunger or of laughter

Wakening it,

Imperious fingers pushing up its eyes.

That house is living,

There is moving in it

The green sap of the world.