Chapter XXXIII

The mists that whirl in greater mists Around the cliffs of space Leave little drops of water Upon his wrinkled face.

Have you heard Him, as walking through The valleys of the night He paces ever back and forth, Silent, old and white?

Upon some jagged piece of dust As high as night is high, He watches all the tiny worlds Go spinning down the sky.

Around Him are the burning stars That toss like little ships, The winds blow out of dim unknowns Across his very lips.

Have you seen Him amid the silence, Vast as a silken cloud, Lifting His arms with jeweled pendants Cloaked in a heavy shroud?

When sweeping through the open night Great pinions touch the face; Vast wings that fold the face of God Against the breast of space;

We hear the hills that all one's life Were silent as the sun, Break forth in songs that waited there Since life had first begun.

We reach out for the fluttering hand And finding it is gone, We know the stars that shake the sky Are only old and wan.

We stand and listen and we know That rising through the night Pass all the hosts of all the years Death ever hides from sight.

So much and yet so little then With thrust that follows thrust.... The paltry things of paltry life Shrink swiftly into dust.

We lift our hungry hands to Heaven For pity and in pain The only answer ever given Is that fancy and faith remain.

Wars we wage that One might rule.... Proud and jealous is He. With fire and sword we crush the fool Who does not bend the knee.

Temple and palace, hovel and hut, Dreamer and doer of deeds, At least one door is never shut, God answers all our needs.

He walks the crest of some far hill Against the setting sun, The presence of a mighty will Whose journey is never done.

Into the night and over the dawn All the things that are Through empty voids go plunging on.... Planet and sun and star.

Yet He we worship died years ago Like some poor human clod, And that which wanders to and fro Is only the ghost of God!