I believe in what one might call holy beauty, the sort of beauty that can draw the spirit to contemplate amazing things, a beauty that enlarges the heart, provokes no envy or covetousness, but encourages virtue and cultivates true humanity. Perhaps I'm only a dreamer, but I'd like to think I'm not.

Before All

Before all, friend, seek first the fairest thing,

The dearest dream that draws your spirit near

To where your deepest wish waits wordlessly,

That beauty’s borrowed wings might take you onward

Past the clinging claims of care

To find afar your first and truest trust,

A fealty beyond all fear or favour,

New-born, beginningless, bound only by eternity.

Oh, do not linger longer than you must

Amid the unrequited embers of this age,

But let your stumbling footsteps lead you forth

Along the royal way to wonder’s well

Where thirst is slaked, fulfillment found, and joy,

Beyond all heart-borne burdens, burns

Yet does not fail, its fire fed by faith

And tended timelessly by mercy’s measureless love.

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