Classic Poem

In the first court the youth felt a cool hand laid on his throbbing forehead:
In the second his body eased and discord ceased,
In the third a strange music began in his heart,
In the fourth a longing filled him for ineffable mystery:
In the fifth he panted with great thirst,
And as he listened in the inmost shrine
Earth passed away as a smoke in the heavens,
And he stood in the Mystery.

This wonder dwelt with him for seven days:
His eyes gazed inwardly, and he saw and heard not:
He was as one apart …

And in this time he heard buried music, the song of the soul,
As it flowed like a stream in the ocean:
And strange glimpses came of old days,
And he was a child crawling in the garden and considering butterflies,
Or at the window, in his mother's arms, he saw the full moon and said, “That is God.”
Or he smelt faint honeysuckle and warm milk,
Or he dwelt a pygmy among giants, and one of these was his father.

Then, many times, he seemed deep in water,
And in many waters:

And this was the sea sounding in his ears:
This was the sea …

So he moved like a memory for seven days,
His Mother's image patiently tracing his steps.