On the beach at
night, alone,
As the old mother
sways her to and fro singing her husky song,
As I watch the
bright stars shining
I think a thought
of the clef of the universes and of the future.
A vast similitude
interlocks all,
All distances
of space however wide,
All distances
of time,
All souls, all
living bodies though they be ever so different,
All nations,
all identities that have existed or may exist,
All lives and
deaths, all of the past, present, future,
This vast similitude
spans them, and always has spanned,
And shall forever
span them and compactly hold and enclose them.
Down from the
gardens of Asia descending,
Adam and Eve
appear, then their myriad progeny after them,
Wandering, yearning,
with restless explorations, with questionings,
Baffled, formless,
feverish, with never-happy hearts,with that sad incessant refrain-
'Wherefore unsatisfied soul? whither, O mocking life?'
Who shall soothe
these feverish children?
Who justify these
restless explorations?
Who speak the
secret of the impassive earth?
Yet soul be sure
the first intent remains, and shall be carried out.
Perhaps even
now the time has arrived:
After the seas
are all crossed,
After the great
Captains have accomplished their work,
After the noble
inventors,
Finally, shall
come the poet worthy that name,
The true son
of God shall come singing his songs.
Walt Whitman
There
is more of this to be found in the words of Whitman that Ralph Vaughan
Williams used in his Sea Symphony.
I am working on some poetry that uses the Sierra Nevada as visionary
symbolism. Stay 'tuned'.