The Equinox (Volume I, Number X)

ROSA IGNOTA Over the brink of the world to cull fresh roses; Roses, still roses, myriad roses bloom In the silence. Oh! the world’s great Rose uncloses Her petals still, to the Nothingness of doom. Last Rose! Last love! Last night thou camest to me, A silver dream under a sapphire sky; The winds of the world ran ever and ever through me, Until, at last, the end: then did I lie In dream, and dream that made mine eyes unclose, And so I lost thee, O immortal Rose. (vim) I swing a censer in a temple of fire; I chant slow mantrams to a holy Name; I fall in swoon unstained by earth’s gray mire, Being wrapped about in a sheet of scarlet flame. Lo! through the fire the mantram comes to me, Shouted by the world in chorus, and I lie In utter rapture; the virginity Of the inmost Light, that knows not how to die. Oh, cast thy mantle over me! I am taken By the goddess! Sprinkle water on my head, Lest I in rapture care not to awaken, Knowing the utter glory of the dead. Oh! I am back, wet-eyed, with panting breath: I have seen the nuptials of Desire and Death! (1x) There are no mortal songs that shall avail To bring the Mystery into the mind 191