Eeden Dutch Poet 1860-1932

Voice From Beyond

It was so light in my last hour,
The starlings twitter tender and clear.
A joy that words would never deflower
Pervaded field and atmosphere.
The sun a grand and blinding wonder-
As were its rise the very first,
Arose, and flowers opened under
It's blessing as it's glory burst.
Astounded seemed the waking world
As if the sun were strangely new.
He shadows built their nests and hurled
Their wings across the morning dew.
I saw the mother peewit winging
With fearful flap flaps around her lair.
I listened to the thrushes singing
Their welcome in the morning air.
The breezes stroked the glittering river,
The billows babbled to the reed.
Light made all vibrant, and a shiver
Of joy ran throughout the dew wet mead.
Oh death where was thy sting and terror?
It seemed as if the earth had massed
All natures beauty in the mirror
Of that last hour before it passed.
Oh, boon of life I must abandon,
I had not loved the as I should.
I never laid a trembling hand on
Thy gifts in childlike gratitude.
I never turned my consecration
To life into a holy feast,
Nor seeing into adoration,
Nor thought into a sunrise east.
As if black spiderwebs were dusted
Off an old painting, I got sight
Of un guessed joys whose glows had rusted
And now broke forth across the blight.
Oh fear, delusion, rank diseases
Which poison all the human brood
And hinder us from giving prasises
To god with fervent gratitude,
Which make us hesitate and falter
And cower sadly, plaintively
Whereas the lark towards heavens alter
Soars up in jubilant ecstasy!
Ye who still dwell in sunlight, harken
This message from the realm of dream:
"Dispel the demons whose shadows darken
Gods face and make you blind to him"
Oh needless pain where joy is thwarted
Ny false beliefs that blind our view.
The earth was radiant when I parted,
More beautiful than I ever knew