Before men walked
I was in these places.
I was here
When the mountains were laid.
I am as light
To eyes long blind,
I, the stone
Upon every grave.
I saw black night
Flung wide like a curtain.
I looked up
At the making of stars.
I stood erect
At the birth of rivers.
I beheld
The designing of flowers.
Who has discerned
The voice of lightning,
Or traced the music
Behind the eyes?
He prescribed
The paths of the planets.
His fingers scattered
The distant stars.
He shaped the grave shore’s
Ringing stones
And gave to the rocks
An echoing core.
He bound great mountains
With snow and ice
And bathed in glory
The lesser hills.
He made the sun
Of sulphurous fire.
From secret darkness
He called the moon.
Under her voice
And moving light
He chained the tides
Of the great seas rolling.
Still upon Earth
Was no live creature.
Barren still
Was the womb of the sea.
Mute the features
Slept in the rock,
Limbs and the soul
Inert, unbeckoned.
Marrowed with air
He made the birds.
Fish He sowed
In the restless wave.
Antelope, horse
And bull He made.
From caves of ice
He released the stormwinds.
He numbered the meadow’s
Drops of rain
Caught in the cloud
And the teeming rose-bush.
Lions He made
Like fallen suns,
Fiery sand
And the beasts of burden.
He gave to the trees
Mysterious fruits
And twined in the husk
Miraculous corn.
Where lizards breathed
In the pathless desert
He gave each atom
A hidden sun.
Last, all labour
He bent on dust.
Out of the red dust
Made He man.
Ancient music
Of silence born:
All things born
At the touch of God.
He built for him
His eternal garden,
Timeless, moving,
And yet in time.
He cast on him
Dark veils of sleep.
Out of his side
He took the Female.
Ask my age:
You shall have no answer.
I saw the building
Of Babel’s Tower.
I was a lamp
In Solomon’s temple;
I, the reed
Of an auguring wind.
What do you seek
In the salmon river,
Caught in the net,
What living gold?
What do you seek
In the weir, O Elphin?
You must know
That the sun is mine.
I have a gift
For I have nothing.
I have love
Which excels all treasures.
Certain there were
Who touched, who knew Him.
Blind men knew
On the road their God.
Mock me and mock:
My music stands
Before and after
Accusing silence.
Leave a Reply