The Key Poem by Nellie Isabelle Steward Cooper

I sought the key that was promised me
hid in the sand of the lonely land

But I saw the key that was promised me
snatched from my hand in the lonely land -
dragged by the tides far out to sea-
carried by the waves far away from me

I didn't know that the path would end
by the ocean side and the dark descend
and I on the beach would sink and moan -
seeking in the night by myself alone

With the sea behind and
the sea before and the
shifting sands of an endless shore
an island alone in the sea and sky

Where I might search until the day I die

I've made a fire of bits and scraps
and dream of a door that might open perhaps
I being a dreamer and dreamer me -
and I in a dream found the dream lost key