THE SEA
In the still of the night
As man slumbers behind the folds,
the forest proclaims:
“I am the power
Brought by the sun from
The heart of the earth.”
The sea remains quiet, saying to itself,
“I am the power.”
The rock says,
“The ages erected me as a monument
Until the Judgment Day.”
The sea remains silent saying to itself,
“I am the monument.”
The wind howls
“I am strong,
I separate the heavens from the earth.”
The sea remains quiet, saying to itself,
“The wind is mine.”
The river says
“I am the pure water
That quenches the thirst of the earth.”
The sea remains silent saying to itself,
“The river is mine.”
The summit says,
“I stand high like a star
In the center of the sky.”
The sea remains quiet saying to itself,
“The summit is mine.”
The brain says,
“I am a ruler;
The world is in those who rule.”‘
The sea remains slumbering saying, in its sleep,
“All is mine.”
Sand and Foam
I AM FOREVER walking upon these shores,
Betwixt the sand and the foam,
The high tide will erase my foot-prints,
And the wind will blow away the foam.
But the sea and the shore will remain
Forever.
Once I filled my hand with mist.
Then I opened it and lo, the mist was a worm.
And I closed and opened my hand again, and behold there was a bird.
And again I closed and opened my hand, and in its hollow stood a man with a sad face, turned upward.
And again I closed my hand, and when I opened it there was naught but mist.
But I heard a song of exceeding sweetness.
It was but yesterday I thought myself a fragment quivering without rhythm in the sphere of life.
Now I know that I am the sphere, and all life in rhythmic fragments moves within me.
They say to me in their awakening, “You and the world you live in are but a grain of sand upon the infinite shore of an infinite sea.”
And in my dream I say to them, “I am the infinite sea, and all worlds are but grains of sand upon my shore.”