| |
| THERE is a quest that calls me, | |
| In nights when I am lone, | |
| The need to ride where the ways divide | |
| The Known from the Unknown. | |
| I mount what thought is near me | 5 |
| And soon I reach the place, | |
| The tenuous rim where the Seen grows dim | |
| And the Sightless hides its face. | |
| |
| I have ridden the wind, | |
| I have ridden the sea, | 10 |
| I have ridden the moon and stars. | |
| I have set my feet in the stirrup seat | |
| Of a comet coursing Mars. | |
| And everywhere | |
| Thro’ the earth and air | 15 |
| My thought speeds, lightning-shod, | |
| It comes to a place where checking pace | |
| It cries, “Beyond lies God!” | |
| |
| It calls me out of the darkness, | |
| It calls me out of sleep, | 20 |
| “Ride! ride! for you must, to the end of Dust!” | |
| It bids—and on I sweep | |
| To the wide outposts of Being, | |
| Where there is Gulf alone— | |
| And thro’ a Vast that was never passed | 25 |
| I listen for Life’s tone. | |
| |
| I have ridden the wind, | |
| I have ridden the night, | |
| I have ridden the ghosts that flee | |
| From the vaults of death like a chilling breath | 30 |
| Over eternity. | |
| And everywhere | |
| Is the world laid bare— | |
| Ether and star and clod— | |
| Until I wind to its brink and find | 35 |
| But the cry, “Beyond lies God!” | |
| |
| It calls me and ever calls me! | |
| And vainly I reply, | |
| “Fools only ride where the ways divide | |
| What Is from the Whence and Why”! | 40 |
| I’m lifted into the saddle | |
| Of thoughts too strong to tame | |
| And down the deeps and over the steeps | |
| I find—ever the same. | |
| |
| I have ridden the wind, | 45 |
| I have ridden the stars, | |
| I have ridden the force that flies | |
| With far intent thro’ the firmament | |
| And each to each allies. | |
| And everywhere | 50 |
| That a thought may dare | |
| To gallop, mine has trod— | |
| Only to stand at last on the strand | |
| Where just beyond lies God. | |
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