Creation

I

Someplace Heaven’s shell broke open,

And the sun, wounded-like,

Fluttered, gold and lava bleeding,

Round the yawning Earth.

Seas of rose

Gleamed in their waves’ Spring,

Whispering palms stood,

Upon the corals ripened

Fruit of stars.

Someplace quivered mountains

Even in their hardmost glacier,

And the very first drop, that got loose,

A tear in the valley,

Was the very first smile of God.

II

Trident a-sparkle,

Out of silent ocean broke the Word;

Darkly shone the ground of Earth in colors.

And the spirit’s blue hammers

And the angel flutes

Rang round enkindled Heaven.

On mastered shores of darkness

Stood mankind, arrow in forehead,

Ruddy mouth

Open wide as an arch of triumph:

Hither and yon, when it came to them,

They would stop the rounding sun on command.

III

When the hills were married

Lilac fountains tumbled valleyward,

Trees groaned with world-embracing,

And the temples of Spring throbbed.

There, from a dark earthen hut,

Broke an organ-storm of golden music:

Set betwixt Heaven and Earth,

Pillars of earthly song,

Stood mankind.

Out of stone-hard pain,

Deep in love’s lap drunken,

The splendid were arisen!

Ivan Goll