Without and Within

Why should I fear the body's burning siege,

Deeming its colour a war on eternity?

The secrecy within now feels scorched ash,

Since still unknown is the salamander soul,

The immune indweller of the blaze of time,

Outpassioning passion by its cry for God.

This soul is native to the crimson throb:

It archetypes all animal ecstasy:

Body is its own dream half-realised yet.

When wakes that reveller of the alchemic deep,

Whose golden eyes see heaven everywhere,

The peace that plumbs the Immutable's mystery

Finds in those leaping tongues of the fire of form

No hell blaspheming with a hundred mouths.

The singing chaos that ensheathes the spirit

Grows suddenly a rapture-drunk embrace

Of the hidden God by a God who bursts to flame!

The loves of earth are stained with sin no more.

They turn a crystal jar of deathless wine

Shedding an aura through each glassy wall

To envelop the whole universe and touch

The seraph's secret smile on every face!

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