Tower of Ivory/Escape
ESCAPE
Ships that down the long seas blow,
Gulls that slope the winter stars,
Ye that earth's wide highways know,
Gleam of white wings, gloom of spars,
Ye that follow shattered suns,
Ye that seek the smouldering day,
Lead me where the long road runs,
Lead me your desired way.
Through the intricate dim mind
Seek I after splendid things,
Never hearing where, behind
Pulse of brain, the high soul sings.
Toward the mirror of myself,
Down the ways my own feet trace,
Seek I the eternal God,
Find I there—the seeker's face.
Teach me utterly to leave
This blind dream within a dream,
Where the mole-like senses weave
Out of their deep night a gleam;
Lead me where the bitter sea
Stings unseeing eyes with sight,
Mocks the heart's uncertainty
With itself, stern infinite,
Numbs the brain that comprehends
Neither end nor endlessness,—
Save the solemn flesh that tends
Solemnly its vineyard press;
Where the present hand of God
Gleams across the tempest, where
Naked I may feel His rod,
Pray, unfettered then with prayer.
Ye that follow shattered suns,
Ye that seek the ash of days,
Lead me where the long road runs,
Lead me your desired ways.