Evocation

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Title:     Evocation
Author: Cale Young Rice [More Titles by Rice]

(NIKKO, JAPAN, 1905)

Dim thro' the mist and cryptomeria
Booms the temple bell,
Down from the tomb of Ieyasue
Yearning, as a knell.

Down from the tomb where many an aeon
Silently has knelt;
Many a pilgrimage of millions--
Still about it felt.

Still, for I see them gather ghostly
Now, as the numb sound
Floats, an unearthly necromancy,
From the past's dead ground.

See the invisible vast millions,
Hear their soundless feet
Climbing the shrine-ways to the gilded
Carven temple's seat.

And, one among them--pale among them--
Passes waning by.
What is it tells me mystically
That strange one was I?...

Weird thro' the mist and cryptomeria
Dies the bell--'tis dumb.
After how many lives returning
Shall I hither come?

Hither again! and climb the votive
Ever mossy ways?
Who shall the gods be then, the millions
Meek, entreat or praise?

[The end]
Cale Young Rice's poem: Evocation

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