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Day and Night

Waves

page 36

Waves

Now in the dark of night disposed
Sleepwards, but aware meanwhile,
(Night of cloud, sky speechless,
Lights on alluvial plain muffled,
Neighbouring hill-lights long extinguished,)
Under the silence I hear
Deep calling to deep.

It is the surge of unplumbed seas
Of being, from before time was;
Fundamental urge of atoms;
Slime-emergent, vegetable armies,
Phytoplankton, mosses, grasses;
Dirge of vast massy forests
Passing away fulfilled.

Incessant protoplasmic swell
Of life impelled to ideal form;
Cell to fellow-cell murmuring
In dark arteries of supreme organisms
Marine memories; the old oceans
Curled shells record; salt streams
Wherein all life was laved.

No wind, that sound,
But earth’s yearning sighs
For answerer, for deliverer
From too heavy burden
Of bewilderment, of unspeakable
Hid guilt, hidden hurt,
Of terrible, hid joy.

page 37

Deep of heart calling heart,
Art yonder? calling. Yea, love, here.
Deep of thought: thus, pondering,
Thus, thus, probing. Nay but, posing,
Deep of soul: Lord, Lord,
Out of the deep have I called,
Lord, hear my voice.

Not lost, these cries,
In the deep bosom of time;
Hear, to the low perpetual rumour:
Kyrie eleison! Deus misereatur!
Out of the abysm ever resounding
Diapasonal answer: Alpha, Omega.
I am the Beginning and the End.

Hear again.… deep under
Earth’s unease, immutable doom
Thundering; appeasing the pain, the expectancy
Of the prisoned, the burdened, looking for entelechy;
Listen, as it were the sound of many waters:
I, the Slain, am the Meaning, the Guerdon;
I am the Ground, the Meed.

Listen again…it is the Spirit
Come, saying, come. The dumb
Cosmos learning speech. Come Lord!
It is the Beautiful Shepherd piping
Unwearied in the eternal meadows;
The Bridegroom, ready Bride summoning
With dominant: Behold I come.