ENOCH CHAPTER 21 ~ 35

ENOCH 21

1 And I proceeded to where things
Were chaotic. 2 And in the rings
I saw there something horrible,
3 I saw neither a heaven in full
Nor a firmly founded earth, but
A place chaotic and unshut.

Chaos is such an idea that the mind
Though not escaping every form and blind
Still comes again to the brink to see if
The thing is truly as it seems or stiff.
From chaos every man believes arises
Creation and creator’s desired prizes.
And so I too turn toward chaotic fount
Of poetry and cosmos for account.
Beloved, if all the universe remains
Something of horror for its human pains,
None can escape the mythopoeic view
That makes the shifting patterns out of dew.
Let me enjoy the empty light and shade
While You know all that You have truly made.

4 And there I saw the seven stars
Of heaven bound within its bars,
Like great mountains and burning fire.
5 Then I said “For what sin’s desire
Are they bound, and on what account
Have they been cast upon this mount?”
Then said Uriel, one of those
Holy angels, come to disclose
To me, and was chief over them,
He said “Enoch, why do You ask,
The meaning and the stratagem,
And why are You eager for task
To know truth? 6 “These are of the number
Of heaven’s stars, which do encumber
Themselves with disobedience
To YHWH’s commandment given for sense,
And are bound here ten thousand years,
Until the time of their arrears
Of sins, are finished to last cents.”

Ah my Beloved! Hear of the day to come
When the great stars that make up seven’s sum
Bound in the place of horrors at the brink
Of universe, arise again to think!
Ten thousand years, no more, shall make their toil
And then the seven stars up from the spoil
Shall ascend to the heavens from the coil,
Majestically, forgiven their trespass,
To take their places on the empty pass
Ten thousand years left dark and sorrowful.
The seven stars, not meek, but dutiful,
Ascend the empty thrones and raise a hand
To shed God’s light upon the murky land.
That day I shall not fail to understand.

7 From there I found another place,
Which bore still more horrendous face
Than the preceding, and I saw
A horrible thing at the draw,
A great fire there that burned and blazed,
And the place was split down and crazed
As far as the abyss, and full
Of huge descending columns’ pull
Of fire, and neither its extent
Nor limit could my eye prevent,
Nor could I fathom. 8 Then I said
“How fearful is this place and dread
To look upon!” 9 Uriel said
To me in answer, who was one
Of the holy angels begun
To be with me, he said to me
“Enoch, why such fear frightfully?”
10 And I answered “Because of this
Fearful place, and because of this
Spectacle of the pain.” And he
Said to me “This place is the free
Prison of the angels, and here
They will for evermore appear.”

Some angels’ sins are great enough to mete
Eternal punishment outside the seat
Of universe and light, upon the ground
Unfirm, unformed, where neither sight nor sound
Greet eye and ear with the familiar dance
Of praise to You, Beloved, in their advance.
Before the vast and gloomy halls where they
Suffer for sins unfathomed in my day
My heart recoils, my spirit turns away,
In dumb, motionless prostration to stray.
Read no scroll for my doubts, answer no quest,
Beloved, at times my ignorance is best,
Since there are caverns of the universe
Too deep for human blessing or for curse.

And yet, Beloved, do not I look on hells
That ring about me in their winkling bells
Pretending to be life and love and light,
When they instead are caverns of the night?
The pitiful, bleak pain that started from
Auschwitz’s quays diffuses here where come
The tonnes of people flesh whose work makes free
To wallow in a blind and festered glee.
Not that I gaze with horror on abyss,
But that I take for granted all of this.
Beloved, in one sweep of awakenings
I spread my soul’s silken and copper wings
And rise to circle on the tepid air
Until I meet a current fresh, cold, bare.

ENOCH 22

1 From there I found another place,
Where was a hill of hard rock face.
2 And there were four hollows in it,
Deep, wide and very smooth and fit.
How smooth are the hollows and deep
And dark to look at on the steep!

Four gates there be in life and divine breath,
Four gates are still the covenant of death.
There is no escape from the pit nor from
The golden stair to heaven where angels come.
The choice is ever before human eye
To ramp upon the mountains to the sky
Or sink into the fellows of the pit
Where almost all the world will come to sit.
Enoch alone saw that fair death and flew
Out from its talons in refuge to You.
Beloved, I chose the gate of law and love
As long as I have knowing and truth of
Your being, and so when I see the stone
I shall sink there prostrating at Your throne.

3 Then Raphael answered and said
One of holy angels who led,
“These hollow places were created
For this very purpose and stated,
That spirits of the dead souls should
Assemble there as best they could,
Indeed that all the souls of sons
Of men should gather from their runs.

All men assemble each in his own state
To find the judgement where You sit and wait
Upon the universe that You have made
Until the dawn arises rosed and greyed.
The work of six days at last becomes still,
The fevered stroke of battle on the hill
And glint of plough, and spark of steel once laid
Is silent before the four places stayed.
From east to west the chain of life goes round
Until reversal of the sun is found,
And southern winds beat on the humbled ground,
And northern lights in vast convulsions sound
The static warning and the soul looks up
To find the waited, unexpected cup.

4 “And these places were made to hold
Them till the day of judgement bold
And till appointed time, the great
Judgement on them decides their fate.”
I saw a dead man making suit,
And his voice went up from the root
To heaven for appeal. 5 And I
Asked Raphael the angel why,
Who was with me, and so said I
To him, 6 “This spirit that makes suit,
Whose is it, whose voice goes and makes
Appeal to heaven?” 7 For their sakes
He answered me saying “This is
The spirit that went forth from his
Abel, whom his brother Cain slew,
And he appeals against him due
Till his seed is destroyed from face
Of all the earth, and his seed’s place
Has disappeared from seed of men.”

I join my cry to Abel’s from the ground
And make an everlasting mournful sound
That prophets are elected from the last,
And righteous men forever are outcast.
Beloved, You spoke to Cain and left the poor
Without protection from the evil spoor.
Now hear his plaint and give justice its way
Now and again upon the judgement day!
The rocky hollows are an evil place
Without a soft pillow or bed to face
The weary centuries of crying high
That You might hear the suit when passing by.
Yet how familiar have the hollows come
In my heart’s centuries without a crumb!

8 Then I asked about it again,
About all the hollows, “Why’s one
Divided from the other run?”
9 He answered me and said to me
“These three have been made so freely
That the dead spirits might divide
And find a place where they might hide.
Such separation has been made
For righteous spirits on parade,
In which there is a shining spring
Of water for their refreshing.
10 “And such has been made for sinners
When they die and are buried fers
In the earth and judgement has not
Been executed in their life,
And they’ve not yet stood in their lot.

O well of Kauthar! My Beloved, let me
Find that well and that river where I see
The rising darkness and the silenced breath,
The weakened heart-beat entranced upon death!
O lovely spring of which Israel once fair
Sang in the wilderness beyond thirst there,
I follow Moses’ rod and see the spring
That Enoch opened upon every wing
That crowds about Ali’s green pitcher where
The alabaster fountains shed their share.
Beloved, as I come daily in my stride
To forkings in my pathway on each side,
Let me run straight toward the flowing well
Of living waters where no thirstings spell.

11 “Here their spirits because of strife
Shall sit apart in this great pain
Till the great day of judgement reign
And punishment and torment come
On those who curse for ever numb
And retribution for their spirit.
12 “There He’ll bind them forever near it.
And such a separation’s made
For the spirits who make their stayed
Appeal, who make their revelations
About their destruction and rations,
When they were slain in sinners’ days.
13 “Such has been made for human ghosts
Who were not righteous but the boasts
Of sinners, who full of transgression,
With transgressors make no confession,
But their spirits shall not be slain
In the day of the judgement plain,
Nor shall they be raised up from there.”
14 Then I blessed YHWH of glory fair
And said “Blessed be my Lord, YHWH of
Righteousness, who rules aye in love.”

The quarter caverns laid out in high hell
Challenge the heart to make a ring and spell.
Beloved, may I in life make my choice well
To have neither a suit against the raging
Nor transgressions without atonement staging,
To keep me from the waters sweet and pure
Of Kauthar and the modelled green contour
Of alabaster cup bourn in the hand
Of Your lion of God upon the land.
Then I shall bless You too in righteousness
And without plaint before You to address,
Like Enoch, in his living body still,
Went up to open eyes and there to fill
His heart with knowledge of the good and ill.

ENOCH 23

1 From there I found another place
To the west ends of the earth’s space.
2 And I saw there a burning fire
Which ran without rest from desire,
3 And paused not from its course by day
Or by night but ran all the way.
4 And I asked saying “What is this
That does not rest as though in bliss?”
Then Raguel, one of the holy
Angels who was with me, though lowly,
Answered me and said to me “This
Course of fire that You’ve seen is fire
In the west that goes forth in ire
Against the heavenly lanterns come
And all of the celestial sum.”

Beloved, upon an evening to extol
I stop to meditate and raise my soul
Toward the western sky, and at my flight
I meet Raguel clothed in crimson light
Who spoke to Enoch, not to such as me,
And showed the glories of the western sea
Of fire and flame that jutted from the shore
Of the horizon and in cloud up-bore
The whole of heaven’s light it seemed, and more.
Pinned like a butterfly or coloured moth
To the grey of my exhibition cloth,
I stop my living to one concentrate
And timeless breath to see the heavens mate,
Forget perhaps to move again, relate.

ENOCH 24

1 From there I saw another place
Of the earth and the earthly race,
And he showed me a mountain range
Of fire that burned day and night strange.
2 And I went beyond it and saw
Seven mountains gathered for awe
All differing each from the other,
And their stones were marvellous, brother,
And beautiful, magnificent
Throughout, of glorious ascent,
And fair to see, three towards the east,
One set upon the other creased,
And three towards the south, one on
The other, and deep rough ravines,
No one of which was laid upon
Any other among the scenes.

The seven mountains rise behind the fire
That I cannot pass without choosing dire
Results upon myself and my own life.
Beloved, for the fragrance above the strife
I sacrifice my head, my self, my light,
And go into the soft-enfolded night.
The fiery veils are torn to my relief,
I scale the seven mountains to my grief,
And stand before the throne to take the fief,
And find the everlasting dates in sight.
Beloved, You cast up visions before men
To bring them to their knees and yet again
You raise the veils and cast them tumbling down
Upon the blue cobblestones of the town.

3 And the seventh mountain was in
The middle of these, and though kin,
Was greater than them all in height,
Resembling a throne’s seat in sight,
With fragrant trees around the throne.
4 And among them was a tree grown
Such as I had never yet smelt,
Nor was there any of them felt
Like it, it had a fragrance past
All fragrances, and its leaves last
And blossoms and wood never cast.
5 Its fruit is lovely, and its fruit
Resembles the dates from palm root.
Then I said “How lovely’s this tree,
And fragrant, and its leaves to see
Are fair, and its blooms for delight
In their appearance day and night.”
6 Then Michael, one of the holy
And honoured angels who’s with me,
And is their leader, answered free.

Beloved, let Michael come to me to say
What lovely things in fragrance and in day
The middle tree has for the soul in fruit,
The blossoms lighting every path for boot.
The garden once held two trees there in choice,
The one for life, the other giving voice
To knowing right from wrong within the pit
Of stony heart each human finds to sit.
But here the choice is passed, the scented leaves
Warn of no danger beyond Michael’s sleeves.
I touch my forehead to the mulchy sod
Acknowledging both life belongs to God
And right to turn the justice of earth down.
Beloved, I find You lurking in the town.

ENOCH 25

1 And he said to me “Enoch, why
Do you ask me of what you spy,
The fragrance of the growing tree,
And why would you learn truth from me?”
2 Then I answered him saying “I
Wish to know about all I spy,
But specially about this tree.”
3 And he answered saying to me
“This high mountain that You have seen,
Whose summit is beyond like sheen
Of the high throne of Ælohim,
Is His throne, where the Holy Great
One, YHWH of Glory, sits in state,
Eternal King, when He shall come
Down to visit the earth in sum
With goodness. 4 “As for this fragrant
Tree, to no mortal shall He grant
To touch it till the great judgement,
When He shall take vengeance that’s sent
On all and bring all to its end
Forever. 5 “Then that tree shall spend
Itself upon the righteous and
Holy. Its fruit shall be in hand
For food to the elect that stand,
It shall be planted in the place
Of holiness for love and grace,
The temple of YHWH and the king
Eternal over everything.

One tree instead of two is set to wait
The judgement of the world and each man’s fate.
All come alike to one tree tall and straight,
Filled with leaves healing the righteous and mate,
But working death eternal on the son
Of wickedness, one reward for things done
Results in life to those who touch Your throne
And death to those who set for the unknown.
No mortal hand can touch the leaf or flower
Until the raising of the judgement hour,
And yet my Sabbaths come in judgement set
Each week and I find the fruit again met
In foretaste of the rising of the bell,
The coming of the ocean and its swell.

6 “They shall rejoice with joy and be
Glad, and they shall enter in the
Holy place, its fragrance shall be
In their bones, and they shall live long
Upon earth, a life such as your
Fathers lived in the days of yore,
And in their days shall be no song
Of sorrow or plague or torment,
Calamity shall touch no tent.”
7 Then I blessed Ælohim for glory,
The King Eternal, one whose story
Prepared such things for the righteous,
And has created them and us
And promised to give them such glory.

The reward of the loving heart is not
A mere garden and tree in heavenly plot
Beyond the day of judgement and long sought,
But in the very heavenly heart of now
That is no chamber of the mortal plough,
For no one living to die can come there
Except through sacrifice of self in prayer.
Who hope alone for the reward in gift
For what they’ve done amid the precious rift
Shall never taste celestial date and sweet
Although they fall down weeping at Your feet.
The future bears reward and pleasure for
The soul that now enters the secret door
And lies prostrate beneath the leaves in store.

ENOCH 26

1 From there I went upon the earth
Towards its centre, saw in worth
A blessèd place in which there were
Abiding trees whose branches stir
With blossoms. 2 There I saw a holy
Mountain, and there beneath it lowly
And to the east there was a stream
And it flowed south as if in dream.

Three stages in the journey that I make
Appear before my soul and eye to take
Me to the harbour of love and the stake
Of Enoch’s tower and hiding place awake.
I wander now upon the rising land
Covered with fourteen evergreens that stand
In forests unblighted with falling leaf,
Even the birch and aspen without grief
Are clothed and singing in the rising breeze.
But beyond fragrant wood and fragrant trees
Rises the mountain where my steps would freeze
As I rush toward the higher land on stone
To find the living waters at Your throne,
The rest of my reward and its relief.

3 And I saw towards the east another
Mountain some higher than its brother,
And there between the two a deep
And narrow canyon, from the steep
Also ran a stream underneath
The mountain and upon the heath.
4 And to the west of it there stood
Another mountain, lower wood
Than the former and not so high,
And there between them deep and dry
A canyon, and where the three hills
End there another deep and dry
Canyon ran. 5 And of all the spills
The ravines were narrow and deep,
Formed of hard rock and made so steep
That trees were not planted to keep.
6 And so I marvelled at the rocks,
And marvelled at the canyons’ stocks,
Indeed, I marvelled in a heap.

Who think with minds too literal to know
Reality beyond the wayward show
Of rock crystal, proteins and H2O,
Dismiss the vision as nonsense because
They’re certain the earth has by all its laws
No centre, all things being situated
On one globe that’s through all time just rotated.
Not so. Each man knows well enough the centre
Of the earth’s where he stands himself and bent her.
For others the world’s centre’s found to be
In Mecca, Quds, or Rome at Jubilee.
My door’s threshold in all reality
Is the world’s centre because You and I
There meet each day beneath the middle sky.

ENOCH 27

1 Then I said “Why’s this blessed land,
That is wholly filled up with grand
Trees, here and why is this accursed
Valley between them for the worst?”
2 Then Uriel, one of the holy
Angels who was with me though lowly,
Answered and said “This accursed place
Is a valley for accursed race
Forever, here shall be there gathered
Together all the accursed tethered
Whose lips pronounce words against YHWH
In blasphemy and speak undue
Things of His glory. Here they’ll be
Gathered together, here shall be
Their place of judgement. 3 “In last days
There shall fall on them for their ways
The sight of righteous judgement there
Before the righteous in their care
Forever, here the merciful
Shall bless YHWH of glory and full
The King Eternal. 4 “In the days
Of judgement for their former ways,
They shall bless Him for the mercy
By which He’s sentenced them to be.”
5 Then I blessed YHWH of glory and
Set forth His glory in the land
And praised His name gloriously.

There is no sin but this, Beloved, I see,
And that’s to speak against Your name and fame.
For this offence and this offence only
Those in the valley cursed receive their blame.
There is no righteous work by which the blessed
Are rewarded to enter into rest
But this one work, a heart with mercy filled
And overflowing, from which mercy spilled.
The whole world’s made of blasphemers and those
Who have mercy upon the ones You chose.
The root of every sin is not to know
The meaning of Your name and not to show
Its glory in the quiet act and word
Wherein the merciful always concurred.

ENOCH 28

1 And from there I went towards the east,
Into the middle range at least
Of mountains in the desert tract,
And I saw wilderness in fact,
And it was solitary, full
Of trees and plants delectable.
2 And water gushed forth from above.
3 Rushing like an abundant love,
The watercourse towards north-west
Flowed making clouds and dew to rest
On every side and there above.

The north-west watercourse is rarely found
In Palestine upon the Jordan’s ground
And so expresses the exotic round
Of Egypt and the Oriental sound.
My whirling turns an eastward cast to go
Along the birchen forests to the glow
Of tundras where the north-west waters slow
To meet the northern sea, there I may know.
The desert mountains filled with trees still meet
My eye as I turn myself from defeat
And follow on the crust to melted snow.
I disappear to eyes behind my back
Among the shadows misting up my track
Within Your heart, Beloved, incognito.

ENOCH 29

1 From there I found another place
In the desert, approached its trace
From the east of this mountain range.
2 And there I saw wonders and strange
Aromatic trees exhaling
The fragrance of frankincensing
And myrrh, and the trees also were
Like an almond tree at the stir.

Ah my Beloved, I too have seen the trees
Of desert and of mountain on the breeze,
And of the plain and marshland, I have seen
The lovely and the giant and the green.
Ah my Beloved, what sweeter perfume comes
Upon the air by Your trees with their drums
Beating out cantillations made so sweet
That they are heard by eye, and seen by feet,
And savoured for perfume by hand and heart
As well as by the nostrils feigning art.
Ah my Beloved, I too have run and danced
Among the sacred trees whose voice has pranced
To claim and proclaim always more Your name.
Beloved, I too have savoured cedar flame.

ENOCH 30

1 And beyond these, I went toward
The far east, and I saw a shored
Valley filled with water in place.
2 And in it there was a grown tree,
Like fragrant trees such as mastic.
3 And on the valley sides grown thick
I saw the fragrant cinnamon.
And beyond these my journey’s run
Proceeded towards the eastern sun.

I sit in the shade of a rock to see
The mighty Euphrates spread before me,
And mark the violence of that quick stream
That comes to me in nightmare and sweet dream.
I see the many colours shake their cloak
About the evening sky as though in smoke
And regal dance to fire horizon’s lie.
And on my lap my friend slumbers the by,
Unconscious that the fragrant trees below
Are threatened by a dam project not slow
To wrest from us the gardens and the peach
And drown at last the apricot from reach.
That high rock is now on the lapping shore
Of the lake backed up by the dam in store.

ENOCH 31

1 And I saw other mountains, and
Among them there were groves of trees,
And, like the scents of Samarqand,
There flowed forth nectars from the lees
Sarara’s and galbanum’s ease.
2 Beyond these mountains there I saw
Another mountain to the east
Beyond where earth ends, at the draw,
Grew aloe-trees, and not the least,
The trees were full of stacte like
To almond trees, and when one burned it,
3 It smelled sweeter than one had earned it,
Than any fragrant odour’s feast.

The heathen Canaanites worshipped beneath
The groves of Palestine, the Celtic heath
And Saxon hope were bound up in the oak.
If any heart’s perennial it’s one
That turns towards the trees under the sun
To seek the true and hidden. Heathen share
Is right that You have hidden in the fair
Forest the aromatic winds and air.
But even heathen must turn from the tree
To find the heart creating faithfully.
But turning there, You are not far away,
But are found waiting where the aloes stay,
And where the frankincense bears wondered sway
Upon the wooded hills and fragrant lea.

ENOCH 32

1 And after all these fragrant scents,
As I looked towards northern ascents
Over the mountains I saw seven
Mountains full of the nard of heaven
And fragrant trees and cinnamon
And pepper lying in the sun.

The four scents that arise upon the days
Numbered in seven to acclaim all my ways
Are four gates of experience in views
Of You, Beloved, in all the sparkling dews.
The sky-nard and the pungent trees awake
To fill with cinnamon anointings’ sake
To where the gate of truth springs up to take
Away my breath and knowing on the wake
Of pepper strewn upon my path and bed.
In pepper at last let my soul be led
To find above the tang and sweet that all
Men must respond like pepper to Your call,
And none are left to flee upon the wall
When time eternal shall break out of stall.

2 And from there I went over tops
Of all these mountains without stops,
Far towards the east end of the earth,
And passed above the Erythraean sea
And went far from it and its girth,
And passed the angel Zotiel.
And I came to a place to see
The garden of righteousness well,
3 And I saw from afar off trees
More numerous than all of these
Trees and the two great trees were there,
Very great, beautiful, and fair
In glory, and magnificent,
And the tree of knowledge unspent,
Whose holy fruit they eat and know
Great wisdom. 4 And that tree in show
Is in height like the fir, its leaves
Are like those of the carob’s eaves,
5 And its fruit’s like clusters on vine,
Very beautiful, and the fine
Fragrance of the tree spreads afar.
6 Then I said ‘How lovely like star
Is the tree, and how fine to see!’
Then Raphael the holy one,
The angel, who was there with me,
Answered and said to me to stun
‘This is the tree of wisdom, that
Your ancient father, where he sat,
And aged mother, before you,
Tasted, and learned the wisdom due,
And their eyes were opened, and they
Knew they were naked in the way,
Driven from the garden to stray.’

The myth of generations makes the tree
Of knowledge horrid in its memory,
But nothing horrible is found in it,
A tree whose fruit is holy and still fit.
The sin was not in eating of the tree
That was attractive to make the blind see,
But in taking initiative to be
The one to choose the time to take the wealth
Of secret knowledge and to take in stealth
What You, Beloved, in Your good time bestow
Upon the soul that’s patient and relies
On You for knowledge that will make her wise.
Who waits on You, Beloved, will come to know
At times appointed both the yes and no.

WEEK ENOCH 33

1 And from there I went to the ends
Of the earth and saw there great friends,
Great beasts, and each one different from
The other, and I saw birds come
Also varied in their appearance
And their beauty and their sound’s clearance,
Each one differing from the other.
And to the east of those beasts’ mother
I saw the ends of the earth where
The sky rests, and the heavenly gates
Open. 2 And I saw the stars there
Come forth from heaven to their estates,
And I counted the portals out
Of which the stars came round about,
3 And wrote down all their outlets, for
Each single star and by its door,
According to their number and
Their names, their courses over land
And their positions, and their times
And their months going round in rhymes,
As Uriel the holy one
Of the angels who on the run
Was with me and showed me the fun.
4 He showed all things to me and wrote
Them down for me, also he wrote
Their names for me, he wrote their laws
And their companies without flaws.

Uriel, who’s the light of God, first taught
A human being what he’d always sought,
Ability to write, not just to keep
A record for posterity of deep
Sayings, nor notes to help the memory,
But as an art to cherish tenderly.
Beloved, Your hand threw out the spinning stars
Across the sky and let down the gates’ bars
That scattered them in heaven, while wondering man
Looks helpless on the vastness of the span.
I join my heart to Yours by tracing out
With stylus on the clay what Your stars shout,
And find myself joined with the divine soul
In heaven above, though only earthly mole.

ENOCH 34

1 And from there I went out toward
The north to the earth’s ends’ accord,
A great contrivance there I saw
And glorious beyond my awe
There at the ends of the whole earth.
2 And here I saw three portals’ girth
In heaven open in the sky,
Through each of them come forth the high
North winds, and when they blow there’s cold,
Hail, frost, and snow, dew, rain untold.
3 And out of one portal they blow
For good, but when they come to show
Through the other two portals, then
It is with violent destruction
Upon the earth for beasts and men,
They blow with violent production.

The arctic winds made swirls about the snow
And showed where rocks and bushes hid below
Or not because the snowdrifts were so deep
They left all hidden in their silent sleep.
I take to skis and in the bated breath
Of northwind’s pausing, set out daring death
And without break or turning seal my fate
To find the last fells bottom or be late.
Beloved, the memory of flying once
Reigns still upon my heart to bear the brunts
Of northwinds ever after. So I hear
The groan, the whistle and call without fear
To sleep safe and warm under snowdrifts calm
Dreaming of myrrh and frankincense and palm.

ENOCH 35

1 And from there I went towards the west
To the ends of the earth, and saw
There three portals of heavenly best
Open such as I’d seen in awe
Upon the east, the same number
Of portals, and the same number
Of outlets streaming up in zest.

Had I been Enoch I might have stopped here
To say a word of how east might appear,
For I have seen from Kuwait’s beaches far
Toward the glowing Indic’s rising star
And felt the spray and smelt the dampened tar
Of fishing boats now stranded on the bar.
And I have looked across the rushing stream
Of the Euphrates and seen as in dream
The thousand colours before night that seem
To veil the mystic mountains of the east.
I have looked out and wondered there at least.
But I am not Enoch, and east is set
Far, far across the forests still unmet
That turn to tundra at the brave banquette.


AUTHOR: THOMAS G. MCELWAIN

Copyright © 2007 Adams & McElwain Publishers and Thomas McElwain First Published in two volumes, The Beloved and I 2005, and Led of the Beloved, 2006. Second Edition, 2010 Third and revised edition, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this verse commentary on the sacred Scriptures may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from publisher.

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