Ambergris

AMBERGRIS 113 FROM GARGOYLES Prayer The light streams stronger through the lamps of sense. Intelligence Grows as we go. Alas : its icy glimmer Show dimmer, dimmer The awful vaults we traverse. Were the sun Himself the one Glory of space, he would but illustrate The night of Fate. Are not the hosts of heaven in vain arrayed ? Their light dismayed Before the vast blind spaces of the sky ? O galaxy Of thousands upon thousands closely curled ! Your golden world Incalculably small, its closest cluster Mere milky lustre Staining the infinite darkness ! Base and blind Our minion mind Seeks a great light, a light sufficient, light Insuf- ferably bright, Hence hidden for an hour : imagining This vast vain thing, We call it God, and Father. Empty hand And prayer unplanned Stretch fatuous to the void. Ah ! men my friends, What fury sends This folly to intoxicate your hearts ? Dread air disparts Your vital ways from these unsavoury follies. Black melancholies Sit straddled on your bended backs. The throne Of the unknown