Ends of the Ages

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Ends of the Ages

Poem — An Invocation to the Master #300

What expense of thought and feeling have I spared
In pursuit and worship of Thee who art yet afar?
Rich costly pearl-tears from emotions I have mined,
Taxed the passionate heart to relentlessly labour;

On how many lonely shores of ideas I have trod
Sifting every grain of fact and thing for some sign,
How many tomes of men I diligently perused
Pleading with every word bricking every line;

How many visages I have peered at intently
For light on brow and smile of the all-knowing,
How many valleys of despair I trod gladly 
If perchance in gloom Thou might be residing.

Strangers I have accosted, palms cupped in plea,
“Hast thou seen Him who is named and unnamed?”
They asked, “What countenance beareth he,
Of what race and by which waters is he fostered?”

I replied, “Oh I know not, my mind is robbed,
And my heart ravaged, in a dream half-seen
An outline of the marauder sun-crowned,
A callous coveter and brutally benign!

I have employed the oceans in search,
Her waves pound for answer day and night
And old earth groans and doth beseech
Aid from surreptitious moon’s spying sight.

An avian cohort far-flying I have employed
Bartering my song for their services,
In skies and boughs they have watched
And came back sullen with regrets.”

Said they, “Oh hope not by us where the winged failed,
For our paths are narrow and turn in circles;
Thy net of search is for such catch cursed,
Wiser it is to keep to height of mortals.”

Ah, the men, the men are so fervently unfit
For red rebellion or redder passion,
What heart doth slag like a crone decrepit
And for mere world Thy love abandon!

Heed then me, my love’s rancour shall pursue
Thee to the boundaries of the true and false,
Flee then to what Thy will shall construe,
I shall hound Thee to the ends of the ages.