| CUMHAL called out, bending his head, | |
| Till Dathi came and stood, | |
| With a blink in his eyes at the cave mouth, | |
| Between the wind and the wood. | |
| |
| And Cumhal said, bending his knees, | 5 |
| ‘I have come by the windy way | |
| ‘To gather the half of your blessedness | |
| ‘And learn to pray when you pray. | |
| |
| ‘I can bring you salmon out of the streams | |
| ‘And heron out of the skies.’ | 10 |
| But Dathi folded his hands and smiled | |
| With the secrets of God in his eyes. | |
| |
| And Cumhal saw like a drifting smoke | |
| All manner of blessed souls, | |
| Women and children, young men with books, | 15 |
| And old men with croziers and stoles. | |
| |
| ‘Praise God and God’s mother,’ Dathi said, | |
| ‘For God and God’s mother have sent | |
| ‘The blessedest souls that walk in the world | |
| ‘To fill your heart with content.’ | 20 |
| |
| ‘And which is the blessedest,’ Cumhal said, | |
| ‘Where all are comely and good? | |
| ‘Is it these that with golden thuribles | |
| ‘Are singing about the wood?’ | |
| |
| ‘My eyes are blinking,’ Dathi said, | 25 |
| ‘With the secrets of God half blind, | |
| ‘But I can see where the wind goes | |
| ‘And follow the way of the wind; | |
| |
| ‘And blessedness goes where the wind goes, | |
| ‘And when it is gone we are dead; | 30 |
| ‘I see the blessedest soul in the world | |
| ‘And he nods a drunken head. | |
| |
| ‘O blessedness comes in the night and the day | |
| ‘And whither the wise heart knows; | |
| ‘And one has seen in the redness of wine | 35 |
| ‘The Incorruptible Rose, | |
| |
| ‘That drowsily drops faint leaves on him | |
| ‘And the sweetness of desire, | |
| ‘While time and the world are ebbing away | |
| ‘In twilights of dew and of fire.’ | 40 |
