Out of My Deeper Heart

Out of my deeper heart a bird rose and flew skyward.

Higher and higher did it rise, yet larger and larger did it grow.

At first it was but like a swallow, then a lark, then an eagle, then as

vast as a spring cloud, and then it filled the starry heavens.

Out of my heart a bird flew skyward. And it waxed larger as it flew. Yet

it left not my heart.

* * * * *

O my faith, my untamed knowledge, how shall I fly to your height and see

with you man’s larger self pencilled upon the sky?

How shall I turn this sea within me into mist, and move with you in

space immeasurable?

How can a prisoner within the temple behold its golden domes?

How shall the heart of a fruit be stretched to envelop the fruit also?

O my faith, I am in chains behind these bars of silver and ebony, and I

cannot fly with you.

Yet out of my heart you rise skyward, and it is my heart that holds you,

and I shall be content.