The Hymn of Human Destiny

The grackle thinks its song as great

As meadowlark and nightingale,

And who are we to deprecate

Whose auditory senses fail

From the too-loud music of our time.

Could we in silence like the deer

Catch the harmonies sublime

We then might note upon the ear

Diviner music, ethereal sound,

Lean to the wind or cricket's cry

As one who has in silence found

The hymn of human destiny.

It is evening now, the linnet sleeps,

The mockingbird sings no more

And He who for us beauty keeps

Arises in the being's core,

And in the darkness brings us light

To see with other than these eyes,

Peeling back the shades of night

That we might glimpse Paradise.

For in the day, often blind,

We travel upon busy lanes

Of life and can no exit find

And travel where no beauty reigns.

Yet who would leave before the hour

Assigned to him by the Unknown

But felt within the bud and flower,

In the heart's bliss and in the stone.

Cathedrals we have built to praise,

Filled with incense-laden air

But in religion's endless maze

Still we cannot find him there.