278. The Turning Dervish

STARS in the heavens turn,

I worship like a star,

And in its footsteps learn

Where peace and wisdom are.

Man crawls as a worm crawls;

Till dust with dust he lies,

A crooked line he scrawls

Between the earth and skies.

Yet God, having ordained

The course of star and sun,

No creature hath constrained

A meaner course to run.

I, by his lesson taught,

Imaging his design,

Have diligently wrought

Motion to be divine.

I turn until my sense,

Dizzied with waves of air,

Spins to a point intense,

And spires and centres there.

There, motionless in speed,

I drink that flaming peace,

Which in the heavens doth feed

The stars with bright increase.

Some spirit in me doth move

Through ways of light untrod,

Till, with excessive love,

I drown, and am in God.