Out of the Body to God

WEARILY, wearily, wearily:
Sobbing through space like a south-wind,
Floating in limitless ether,
Ether unbounded, unfathomed,
Where is no upward nor downward,
Island, nor shallow, nor shore :
Wearily floating and sobbing,
Out of the body to God !

Lost in the spaces of blankness,
Lost in the deepening abysses,
Haunted and tracked by the past:
No more sweet human caresses,
No more the springing of morning,
Never again from the present
Into a future beguiled :
Lonely, defiled, and despairing,
Out of the body to God !

Reeling, and tearless, and desperate,
On through the quiet of ether,
Helpless, alone, and forsaken,
Faithless in ignorant anguish,
Faithless of gasping repentance,
Measuring Him by thy measure, —
Measure of need and desert,—
Out of the body to God !

Soft through the starless abysses,
Soft as the breath of the summer
Loosens the chains of the river,
Sweeping it free to the sea,
Murmurs a murmur of peace :—
“ Soul! in the deepness of heaven
Findest thou shallow or shore ?
Hast thou beat madly on limit ?
Hast thou been stayed in thy fleeing
Out of the body to God ?

“ Thou that hast known Me in spaces
Boundless, untraversed, unfathomed,
Hast thou not known Me in love ?
Am I, Creator and Guider,
Less than My kingdom and work ?
Come, O thou weary and desolate !
Come to the heart of thy Father
Home from thy wanderings weary,
Home from the lost to the Loving,
Out of the body to God ! ”