When the World Was New

I can remember when the world was new

And love descended on this blue-green sphere.

He touched the soil and fragrant flowers grew,

And whispered sleep into the poppy's ear;

A time when soul expressed its fragrance too

And life in all its plenitude drew near.

The carefree rose needed not the thorn

And daffodils announced the rites of Spring.

It was a world of wonder so new-born

That sorrow was an unfamiliar thing

And heaven seemed imprinted on the earth.

I saw as with a visionary's sight

The joy of man's becoming and his birth

To be the king of matter and its light

And all of happy life beneath his feet.

But then a darkness crowding down the skies,

Rendered unto life the first deceit,

Ignorance and greed and treacheries

Came covering with veils the early sun,

The glory that we knew was now despair,

The battle lost before it had begun

And covering earth a pestilential air.

The halo I had glimpsed around each face

Now dulled into death's mask and life's defeat,

Of beauty lingered not a lasting trace

But darkness crowding down the sunless skies.

And yet a music dwells within us still

And loveliness not visible to eyes

That see the surface waves, have not the will

To soar into those vast ethereal skies

Where we are one with universal love.

From this clay-mask person we must rise

Uniting all below with God above.