Communion

(The Maharajah’s College, Vizianagaram)

A deafening storm of praise and censure,

the birth-throes of mighty ventures,
travail,
and the terrible temptations of a noisy following,
multitudinous as ocean-waves,
an utter wreckage of energy
in vain attempts to conquer the unconquerable,
the world’s Pacific
of Vanity, and its Atlantic
of Ignorance,
pride,
and continual self-absorption,
and the blinding glory
of success out-distancing Hope–

Such is the lot

of prophets and founders of faiths!

Oft do I rejoice and wonder

at Thy especial fondness for me
in keeping me Thy servant ever,
assigning me delightful duties
along ways perfectly smooth,
in letting me be
near Thee,
always!

Who says

that Thine is perilous employ,
that the way to Thee
is infest with demons dread?

I know,

not merely believe,
that Thou art the easiest approached,
dweling,
not on impossible mountain-tops
not in close fastnesses of steel,
turreted and deep-moated,
but in the heart of all things!

Straighter than the sun-beam,

simpler than the child-heart,
Thy walks
are luminous with the light of a trillion stars!

Not for me the rigmarole of the learned,

nor the secret rites of the chosen;
everyone that cares is Thy chosen,
Thou first and truest Democrat!

Art Thou

beringed with busy priests
dispensing pardons
to the profane crowd beneath
holding forth lucre
in eager outstretched palms?

Straight and sure and swift.

as an arrow to its mark,
flies to Thee
the eagle of my accustomed heart,
Thou indwelling Majesty!

Thoughts of Thee erase from my mind

the legendary Past
and the wild phantasmagoria
of the living Present;
and it swings
to the great Was
before land and sea were made,
and the green hills and valleys
and the ancient skies
and the sun and the stars,
and to the great Will Be
when all these will not be!

And we two dwell

alone, together,
sweetly discoursing
of what I cannot tell,
in a wordless tongue!