10,000 LIGHT YEARS FROM HOME.

In the beginning, Man made the Ship;
He sent it forth in Heaven to seek a new Earth;
To find a sound to ease his pain: the sound of sunlight on the rain;
To find a sound to calm his grief: the sound of moonlight on a leaf ......
- -But oh, I question what we are, from which planet of what star;
- -Past and future are so far -
- -Ten thousand light-years from Home.

- - -I feel the silence closing in where space-dark wings have found me;
- - -Jewel-windowed night's cathedral echoes all around me.
- - -Every world's a candle flame the breath of Time has blown -
- - -Do I hear Earth's requiem
- - -Ten thousand light-years from Home?

- - -Emerald suns in ruby skies are all beyond me lying;
- - -Sapphire dreams on silver wings, the souls of men are flying;
- - -Cleaving space with light and life the diamond Ship has come -
- - -Sky-clad on its lonely quest
- - -Ten thousand light-years from Home.

- - -I hear the songs of distant skies that are too high for singing;
- - -Every thought of every man my Earthborn heart is bringing;
- - -Will the winter melt with fire, the spring burn red with snow?
- - -And desert sands be blue as oceans
- - -Ten thousand light-years from Home?

*

At the End, Man left the Ship.
He let it fall upon the garden of a new Earth.
He heard a sound that eased his pain: the sunlight singing to the rain;
He heard a sound that calmed his grief: soft moonlight on a falling leaf ......
- -And oh his heart was melted stone, for Life is more than flesh and bone,
- -And every flower ever grown
- - Is ten thousand light-years from Home.