Come stand with me on the cliffs in early morning 
As the sun rises over the edge of the world, 
And watch as the sea birds leave their rocky perches 
High up on the crags, to soar out over the sea, 
Floating in wide lazy circles on the warming air, 
Or skimming just above the waves, free as the wind, 
And tell me that you do not envy their freedom, 
Unbound by those forces that bind us to the ground. 
Or again at noonday sitting in the garden 
Listening to the busy chatter of sparrows 
Unseen in the bushes, yet suddenly to dart 
From their hiding places, to pick some choice morsel 
From the bird table to carry back to their young, 
Or perhaps to wash the dust out of their feathers 
Dipping their heads in the water of the bird bath 
In simple joy, and swear that you too do not wish 
That you could sometimes be like them, as they hover 
In the air, no longer weighed down, heavy and dull, 
Unwilling prisoner of your earthbound nature, 
And I will call you liar, your mind as fettered 
As your lumpen body, no better than the clay 
Whence you were formed, the earth to which you will return.

How I have wished on many a summer's afternoon, 
Lying on my back in some meadow's waving grass, 
No sound except that of the wind, and high overhead 
The rippling sound of a skylark, a tiny speck 
In the hazy blue of the sky, that I too could 
Rise up in spirals far above the world below, 
To float in the air, as weightless as gossamer, 
No longer a child of the soil, but free at last 
To swoop and soar and glide like the graceful swallows 
As they catch unsuspecting insects on the wing.
And yet in the imagination of my heart 
I have attained my deepest desires, finally free 
To run in wild delight, filled with divine rapture, 
For with my soul's true mate, we have cast off the shackles
Of mortality, and together hand in hand 
We nightly fly before the wind on wings of love, 
Knowing only the untrammelled joy of true hearts.
As we float high above the world, we are as one 
Released from all our earthly cares, in a new world, 
Of simple joy, where innocent as newborn babes 
We dance upon the clouds, or ride the waves of light, 
Alone yet happy in our paradise of love. 

My friend, I humbly pray you to rejoice with me, 
For my short life is now made whole, and sanctified 
In eternal union with the chosen one 
Formed for me alone from the beginning of time, 
And in whose soft embrace I have transcendence found.