Page:The Poet in the Desert.djvu/9



POET:

I have entered into the Desert, the place of desolation.

The Desert confronts me haughtily and assails me with solitude.

She sits on a throne of light,

Her hands clasped, her eyes solemnly questioning.

I have come into the lean and stricken land

Which fears not God, that I may meet my soul

Face to face, naked as the Desert is naked;

Bare as the great silence is bare:

I will question the Silent Ones who have gone before and are forgotten,

And the great host which shall come after.

By whom I also shall be forgot.

As the Desert is defiant unto all gods,

So am I defiant of all gods,

Shadows of Man cast upon the fogs of his ignorance.

As a helpless child follows the hand of its mother.

So I put my hand into the hand of the Eternal.

I have come to lose myself in the wide immensity and know my littleness.

I have come to lie in the lap of my mother and be comforted.

I am alone but not alone—I am with myself.

My soul is my companion above all companions.

Behold the signs of the Desert:

A buzzard, afloat on airy seas,

Alone, between the two immensities, as I am alone between two immensities;