Page:The Poet in the Desert.djvu/121



All was emptiness and a great stillness.

I seized the Sun by his burning tresses and questioned

him, But he was without knowledge. I clung to the chariot-wheels of the Stars But was flung back to earth ; and they passed on. Then I knew there was no God.

TRUTH: A slender thread of smoke from a dead fire which you yourself have made.

POET: I, myself, am God and a maker of gods. To be myself the only godhood. To bud, to bloom, to fruit, and from the fruit a new

growth. To express myself fully, absolutely, cruelly ; Or I have been a dead thing. To be myself, or I have prevented God-birth; And denied the Supreme Goodness. Godhood is to exist. And the Supreme Godhood is to exist resolutely, to be

excellently, myself. Unless I am determinedly myself, I have taken the supreme gift and belied it. I have broken the everlasting chain. And am a link that has failed. I will not weary the stars with prayers. But I will fill the world with myself, As the air encompasses the whole world, Or the fragrance of lilacs pervades the night.

TRUTH: Taint not the air with incense. But go to the flowers and say : "Brothers, I, too, will insist on my own quality, "Even though it seems not sweet to others."

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