Canto 14Flame-Wind
Book 16. Part Seven - Pondicherry Circa 1927 – 1947
Pondicherry, c. 1927–1947
Tremble with the Fire that knows, thrill with the might of
repose.
Earth is now girdled with trance and Heaven is put round her for
5vesture.
Wings that are brilliant with fate sleep at Eternity’s gate.
Time waits, vacant, the Lightning that kindles, the Word that
transfigures;
Space is a stillness of God building his earthly abode.
10All waits hushed for the fiat to come and the tread of the Eternal;
Passion of a bliss yet to be sweeps from Infinity’s sea.
Flame-Wind
A flame-wind ran from the gold of the east,
Leaped on my soul with the breath of a sevenfold noon.
15Wings of the angel, gallop of the beast!
Mind and body on fire, but the heart in swoon.
O flame, thou bringest the strength of the noon,
But where are the voices of morn and the stillness of eve?
Where the pale-blue wine of the moon?
20Mind and life are in flower, but the heart must grieve.
Gold in the mind and the life-flame’s red
Make of the heavens a splendour, the earth a blaze,
But the white and rose of the heart are dead.
Flame-wind, pass! I will wait for Love in the silent ways.