We are beyond the ways of the far ships

Here in this coral port,

Farther than the ways of fliers,

Because our destinies have suddenly transported us

Beyond the brim of the enamel world.

O Mariner, what is the name of this uncharted Land?

On these clean shores shall stand what sinless voyager,

What angel breathe the music of this atmosphere?

Look where the thin flamingoes

Burning upon the purple shallows with their rare, pale flames,

Stand silent as our thought, although the birds in the high rock

Rinse our new senses with no mortal note,

What are these wings whose silks amaze the traveller?

The flowering palms charm all the strand

With their supernal scent.

The oleander and the wild hibiscus paint

The land with blood, and unknown blooms

Open to us the Gospel of their five wild wounds.

And the deep ferns sing this epithalame:

“Go up, go up! this desert is the door of heaven!

And it shall prove your frail soul’s miracle!

Climb the safe mountain,

Disarm your labored flesh, and taste the treasure of these silences

In the high coral hermitage,

While the clean winds bemuse you in the clefted rock;

Or find you there some leafy Crusoe-castle: dwell in trees!

Take down the fagons of the blue and crimson fruits

And reap the everlasting wheat that no man’s hand has sown,

And strike the rock that runs with waters strong as wine

To fill you with their fortitude:

Because this island is your Christ, your might, your fort, your paradise.

And lo! dumb time’s grey, smoky argosies

Will never anchor in this emerald harbor

Or find this world of amber,

Spoil the fair music of the silver sea

Or foul these chiming amethysts:

Nor comes there any serpent near this isle trenched in deep ocean

And walled with innocent, flowering vines.

But from beyond the cotton clouds,

Between those lovely, white cathedrals full of sun,

The angels study beauty with their steps

And tread like notes of music down the beamy air

To gain this new world’s virgin shore:

While from the ocean’s jeweled floor

The long-lost divers, rising one by one,

Smile and throw down their dripping fortunes on the sand,

And sing us the strange tale

Of the drowned king (our nature), his return!”