1. The day you trod the earth and we stood
At your tomb bidding farewell or grieving still,

2. The earth reeled confused and the pulse of life grew faint,
No longer nurturing, no longer living.

3. In it was ecstasy like the ecstasy in you
That wanders a while then tortures the soul.

4. When you departed to that world beyond
The clouds, veiled from us by the planets,

5. The wind of sorrow gusted over the universe
And its raging storms roared loud.

6. Thousands of years went by in the time
Of the aeons, inexhaustible,

7. While you lay hidden as though you felt
No yearning, no comprehension.

8. You left your worshipper lonely, a vagrant
On earth with no goal to seek.

9. What power have I, though mighty,
Obeyed, feared, who can terrify,

10. To curb the Euphrates if I want
Or move Lebanon from its place?

11. Yesterday I commanded the winds; they blew
Over the universe howling with lament.

12. But all I saw were stars that faded
Or tumbled headlong through the sky,

13. A morning, bleak, forlorn,
Where the dim light was born.

14. No sound struck the ear except the dirge
Echoed from the weary mountain,

15. The branches creaking and snapping,
The thickets stripped bare and gaping,

16. The roar of the bitter angry seas
Whose chests surged and heaved.

17. Surely if I said "Hold!" to the sun
It would pause at the edge of the west,

18. And the darkness would flutter and pound
When I raised my hands to command it.

19. I laid my hands on all creation -
It is as I desire, as I ask.