Classic Poem

O EARTH , sufficing all our needs, O you
With room for body and for spirit, too,
How patient while your children vex their souls
Devising alien heavens beyond your blue!

Dear dwelling of the immortal and unseen,
How obstinate in my blindness have I been,
Not comprehending what your tender calls,
Veiled promises and reassurance, mean!

Not far and cold the way that they have gone,
Who thro' your sundering darkness have withdrawn:
Almost within our hand-reach they remain
Who pass beyond the sequence of the dawn.

Not far and strange the heavens, but very near,
Your children's hearts unknowingly hold dear.
At times we almost catch the door swung wide—
An unforgotten voice almost we hear.

I am the heir of heaven—and you are just
You, you alone I know, and you I trust.
Tho' I seek God beyond the farthest star,
Here shall I find Him, in your deathless dust.