If We Don't Reveal

​If we don’t reveal—through a
Return to you not because
We are afraid, not because we
Seek applause, or follow laws;

Through a faith that meets you
In the park, that sights you
Where the traffic swells, where
In the dark smoke blights you;

In the orchard, where the showy
Apples keep their seeds concealed,
In the field, where puffballs
Free their spores; or a yield

Of golden sparks in a sifting pan;
Of ore shoots and hidden veins--
The light that hovers, not white,
But not not-white, then hurricanes

Strap the coast, drive mud upon
The trunks, drive down the hawks,
Strip the maples and hollyhocks,
Batter and flatten the wheat stalks,

The osprey staggers, its wing dragging,
The sky, its natural home, is gray,
Is shattering with pellets of rain,
Till at night it sees the Milky Way.