As Kingfishers Catch Fire

¹As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;

²As tumbled over rim in roundy wells

³Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's

⁴Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;

⁵Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:

⁶Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;

⁷Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,

⁸Crying What I do is me: for that I came.

⁹I say more: the just man justices;

¹⁰Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;

¹¹Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is —

¹²Christ — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,

¹³Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his

¹⁴To the Father through the features of men's faces.