Once there was a man - Oh, so wise! In all drink He detected the bitter, And in all touch

A slant of sun on dull brown walls… A forgotten sky of bashful blue. Toward God a mighty hymn, A song of collisions and cries, Rumbling wheels, hoof-beats, bells…

Two or three angels Came near to the earth. They saw a fat church. Little black streams of people Came and went in continually.

Black riders came from the sea. There was clang and clang of spear… And clash and clash of hoof and he… Wild shouts and the wave of hair In the rush upon the wind:

I met a seer. He held in his hands The book of wisdom. “Sir,” I addressed him, “Let me read.”

“Have you ever made a just man?” “Oh, I have made three,” answered… “But two of them are dead, And the third— Listen! Listen!

The ocean said to me once, “Look! Yonder on the shore Is a woman, weeping. I have watched her.

Three little birds in a row Sat musing. A man passed near that place. Then did the little birds nudge ea… They said, “He thinks he can sing…

A spirit sped Through spaces of night; And as he sped, he called, “God! God!” He went through valleys

The sage lectured brilliantly. Before him, two images: “Now this one is a devil, And this one is me.” He turned away.

Walking in the sky, A man in strange black garb Encountered a radiant form. Then his steps were eager; Bowed he devoutly.

Mystic shadow, bending near me, Who art thou? Whence come ye? And—tell me—is it fair Or is the truth bitter as eaten fi…

‘It was wrong to do this,’ said th… ‘You should live like a flower, Holding malice like a puppy, Waging war like a lambkin.’ ‘Not so,’ quoth the man

“Truth,” said a traveller, “Is a rock, a mighty fortress; Often have I been to it, Even to its highest tower, From whence the world looks black.…

When the prophet, a complacent fat… Arrived at the mountain-top, He cried: “Woe to my knowledge! I intended to see good white lands And bad black lands,