Beyond

COLOSSAL orb of space,

Sparkling with diamond

Of countless star on star,

All whirling with wild grace

In their enwoven dance

Illimitably far,

What lies beyond

Your vasty hollow girdled by that bright

River of stellar spray

We call the Milky Way?

Immeasurable ball,

Cornpassed and clasped in light,

Can you be all,

A flock of fireflies circling in the night,

A maze of jewels that the toss of Chance

Let fall,

Sun, planet, asteroid,

One globe of glories in the utter void?

What lies beyond?

Does the sheer Dark immerse

Infinity, drowning the last faint gold

Of fleeting comets, lost and vagabond?

Or is this astral universe,

All that our utmost vision may behold,

But one amidst a host of star-strewn spheres,

Each zoned with its own stream

Of softer gleam,

Perchance each dowered with wonder, love and tears?

What lies beyond?

The puny human heart still stirs

Against those flaming barriers,

That proud, impenetrable dome

Of fire and ether, seeking for a home,

A Soul that shall respond

To all its questions, longings and despairs.

Is space but raiment that the Spirit wears,

A gem-embroidered mantle to conceal

And yet reveal

In splendors of surprise

Beauty ineffable,

Immanuel?

Or shall we rise,

Higher than dream of Dante ever trod,

From star to star, from empyrean on

To empyrean, till the sun that shone

Over our vexed mortality be wan,

Through life on life, eternal range

From form to form, from change to change,

To find the Unknown God?