Oh, once I walked in Heaven, all alone <br />Upon the sacred cliffs above the sky. <br />God and the angels, and the gleaming saints <br />Had journeyed out into the stars to die. <br /> <br />They had gone forth to win far citizens, <br />Bought at great price, bring happiness for all: <br />By such a harvest make a holier town <br />And put new life within old Zion's wall. <br /> <br />Each chose a far-off planet for his home, <br />Speaking of love and mercy, truth and right, <br />Envied and cursed, thorn-crowned and scourged in time, <br />Each tasted death on his appointed night. <br /> <br />Then resurrection day from sphere to sphere <br />Sped on, with all the POWERS arisen again, <br />While with them came in clouds recruited hosts <br />Of sun-born strangers and of earth-born men. <br /> <br />And on that day gray prophet saints went down <br />And poured atoning blood upon the deep, <br />Till every warrior of old Hell flew free <br />And all the torture fires were laid asleep. <br /> <br />And Hell's lost company I saw return <br />Clear-eyed, with plumes of white, the demons bold <br />Climbed with the angels now on Jacob's stair, <br />And built a better Zion than the old. <br /> <br />And yet I walked alone on azure cliffs <br />A lifetime long, and loved each untrimmed vine: <br />The rotted harps, the swords of rusted gold, <br />The jungles of all Heaven then were mine. <br /> <br />Oh mesas and throne-mountains that I found! <br />Oh strange and shaking thoughts that touched me there, <br />Ere I beheld the bright returning wings <br />That came to spoil my secret, silent lair!<br /><br />Vachel Lindsay<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/how-i-walked-alone-in-the-jungles-of-heaven/
