Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, EN-SOF, by CARROLL RYAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

EN-SOF, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I number up my jewels, spread them all before your / gaze
Last Line: God alone gives understanding—his love alone is light.
Alternate Author Name(s): Ryan, William Thomas Carroll
Subject(s): Freedom; God; Religion; Wisdom; Liberty; Theology


I number up my jewels, spread them all before your gaze;
I show you things of beauty, but I cannot give you sight;
I'm speaking words of wisdom—you may laugh and go your ways—
God alone gives understanding—His love alone is light.

I look into infinity from pinnacles of time;
The Seer beholds the myriads advancing from afar;
Still higher, ever higher, rising beautiful, sublime,
Flaming oceans disincarnate, each particle a star.

Bright stars, they are not suns nor moons, though these their raiment be;
Twin essences in all exist, the Wisdom and the Word.
Thrones, principalities, powers, Sephiroth, mystery
Of time and space, with God's sweet grace, obey for they have heard.

A grain of sand has mysteries as vast as tim and space,
The brain that thinks, the hand that works are instruments of love.
Unless that spirit be your guide, there is no hope of grace
Throughout the whole wide universe—on earth, in heaven above.

Transfigured you may witness on the pages I unroll
The spirit of the Central Sun—the One, the Three, the Two.
Infinite love and beauty joined, the all-prevading soul;
Source of all things, the fathomless, the absolutely true.

O, Earth! now drenched in blood of war, the crimes of greed and creed,
Of men imploring mercy, tho' all mercy they denied,
Behold the Sower soweth, thou wilt fructify the seed,
Till from thy tortured furrows comes a harvest glorified.

The missionaries preaching, then the traders with their rum—
Their bibles, cottons, gun-machines, O! Blessed Is! I see,
To civilize, to Christanize, to make their fact'ries hum,
Men toil like slaves, they die like dogs, and call that Liberty!

But he who knows the world, Aziah, action—what to do,
Instructed by Yetzirah, world formation—clear seeing,
Where stands revealed in Briah, world-wide threshold to the true,
Is free from all these ills of life with Atziloth being.

Great jewels I have numbered four, but these are counted ten,
Yet only three by you are seen, the fourth is in them all,
Still it is non-existent to the grasp and thought of men,
Though it contains infinity—all things both great and small.

I look into the glories of a time that is to come:
The angel with a flaming sword shall pass from Eden's gate.
Then Man shall enter in again, returning to his home,
Triumphant over time and death, in strength of wisdom great.

All nightmare gods of earth shall die, their altars overthrown
Shall lie neglected; priests no more shall libel Heaven's King,
Nor stand to sell salvation where their temples over-grown
Are mounds beneath the forest trees where happy wildbirds sing.

Behold Man is preparing earth for still another change;
With robbery and slaughter he is ravaging the globe,
With sateless maw and pocket, see the rav'ning monster range,
But neither satisfying, leaves at last an empty robe!

Hark! Seraphim and Cherubim, the Voice that speaks between;
Love, Purity, Obedience, Nitzach the Victory—
Proclaim the gift I freely give—with that which is unseen—
That you may be in truth set free, and meet me by and bye

With Princedoms, in humility, you yet may know the truth,
With angels by the study of the Law Divine may stand;
Tiphereth then is yours for aye, within the high Malkhuth—
With One Supreme Obedience that gives the last command.

Thus numbered are my jewels, thus all spread before your gaze.
I've shown you things of beauty, but I cannot give you sight.
I've spoken words of wisdom—you may laugh and go your ways.—
God alone gives understanding—His love alone is light.





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