Out of the seething cauldron of my woes, <br />Where sweets and salt and bitterness I flung; <br />Where charmed music gathered from my tongue, <br />And where I chained strange archipelagoes <br />Of fallen stars; where fiery passion flows <br />A curious bitumen; where among <br />The glowing medley moved the tune unsung <br />Of perfect love: thence grew the Mystic Rose. <br /> <br />Its myriad petals of divided light; <br />Its leaves of the most radiant emerald; <br />Its heart of fire like rubies. At the sight <br />I lifted up my heart to God and called: <br />How shall I pluck this dream of my desire? <br />And lo! there shaped itself the Cross of Fire!<br /><br />Aleister Crowley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-rose-and-the-cross/
