Classic Poem

But there are self-elected keepers of the soul
To whom the infinite soul is a simple thing,
Easily unraveled.
Somber are their garments as their thoughts
Are somber; their teaching somber.
They would by force compel all to their thinking.
They preach Love with their lips but their hearts
Rejoice in intolerance — they shout for war —
They take the name of Christ in vain and urge
Force, not persuasion; compulsion, not instruction.
Their eyes are raised to Heaven but they see nothing.
They are a flock of crows which tear up the corn
Before it has sprouted.
They suck the egg before it has wings.
Each sees his own narrow shadow on the wall and thinks it God,
But is blind to the handwriting of buds,
Deaf to the instruction of birds,
The teaching of little calves,
And the sermon of the Seasons.
Swollen in their own conceit,
They will not drink from the same cup
With the birds of the air and the beasts of the field;
Puffed with the pride of Ignorance,
They refuse to know the beautiful Oneness
Decreed from the beginning.

As for me, I throw my arms out wide
To the green Earth, the air, the life-giving Sun,
Praying that the Unknown Miracle
Of which I am a part, make me as reverent
To the freedom of another as I
Insist on freedom for my own soul; as brave
For my struggle as those before me were brave.
Strengthen my heart for the path;
Put wings on my feet that I may walk
The higher way
Urging me desperately to know all things;
Humbly knowing I shall never know.
Guessing that Beauty is goodness, goodness beauty
And only Ugliness is sin.

O unseen, unknown, unapproachable, beautiful Mother,
Hushing, soothing, endlessly beneficent,
Continually rocking my cradle with soothing monotony;
Kiss me with your large tranquillity,
And give me understanding.
Teach me the universal love
Which is the universal wisdom.
Make me in life reach toward death,
And in death toward the life
Which shall ceaselessly come after me;
Wherein lies my own immortality
And the eternal hope.
I know my ignorance.
I know my helplessness.
I know that I am compounded of you.
I began with you and shall end with you,
O Infinite Mother.