Broad-tailed Selasphorus Hummingbird
Albion Basin, Alta, Utah
Photo by Alice W. Lee
Let Us Go Then
Let us go then, you and I,
From this moment on, Angel-friend,
Through unexplored alleyways and streets,
And in the darkness together, meet
the slowed strains of pain and grief.
Let us melt into the unknown,
Flow, half-drowned, in forgetful sleep—
Lungs filled with the foreign, heavy deep.
Let us not be afraid
of how Eternity plays.
There will be time to prepare a face to meet,
A heart to swell and beat,
Eyes that learn to see beneath.
There will be times to ask the question:
What is the purpose of this?
For we have known them all already, known them all—
Every piece of data at our beck and call,
Except for this:
Estrangement from bliss.
What is the purpose of this?
To not know as a child of All-knowingness.
To be afraid of oblivion in All-That-Is.
To bow and kneel in the soil of God,
Damp from tears and debased by loneliness.
What is the purpose of this?
Let us go then, you and I,
And follow the yellow smoke and fog
As they press against the ancient windowpanes.
Let us gaze at the warm hearth and dancing flames
Beyond the thin, fractioned frames
Where we belong.
By Alice W. Lee
(Inspired by the poem by T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock)