Arlo Will

    Did you ever see an alligator
    Come up to the air from the mud,
    Staring blindly under the full glare of noon?
    Have you seen the stabled horses at night
    Tremble and start back at the sight of a lantern?
    Have you ever walked in darkness
    When an unknown door was open before you
    And you stood, it seemed, in the light of a thousand candles
    Of delicate wax?
    Have you walked with the wind in your ears
    And the sunlight about you
    And found it suddenly shine with an inner splendor?
    Out of the mud many times
    Before many doors of light
    Through many fields of splendor,
    Where around your steps a soundless glory scatters
    Like new - fallen snow,
    Will you go through earth, O strong of soul,
    And through unnumbered heavens
    To the final flame!