The impenetrable dark —...

The impenetrable dark —

Darkness of cloud and night

Coming on black silent wings

Surround me in their folds,

As it sits by my side on the shore of time.

No fear, no sorrow, no hope,

Not even the footfall of a star;

Dim, deep sable tones

Rise from the organ of nothing

With its flats and sharps of clouds and night.

Ripples of moments

Waves of hours and years

Break on the shore of space

To speak vague, soundless words

To my soul, alone, shade among shades.

Not even the unheard whisper

Of the shadow of a breeze,

But silence ponderous, peaceful,

Afraid of its own self

A mute hound at my feet.

Recedes the bank of space;

Fades away even the unfilled time,

No light, no sound, not even a dream;

Yet who speaks through silence?

Who plays this music of night?

Like an intangible river it flows

With waves of shadow-sound

Between banks of mountainous silence —

O, who! who are you?

Light in a world of shadows,

Rainbow among sunless clouds,

Bark of song on this sea of silence,

O ferryman of the soul!

O Word on Infinite's scroll.