POETRY

PALACE

When I was a King and a Mason,
a Master proven and skilled,
I cleared me a ground for a palace,
such as a King should build.

I decreed and cut down to my levels,
but presently under the silt,
I came on the wreck of a palace,
such as a king had built.

There was no worth in the fashion,
there was no wit in the plan.
Hither and thither aimless,
the ruined footings ran.

Masonry, brute, mishandled,
but carved on every stone.
"After me cometh a Builder,
tell him I, too, have known".

Swift to my use in the trenches,
where my well-planned ground works grew,
I tumbled his quoins and his ashlars,
and cut and reset them anew.

Lime I made from his marbles;
burned it, slaked it, and spread,
Taking and leaving, at pleasure,
the gift of the humble dead.

Yet I despised mot, nor gloried;
for as we wrenched them apart,
I read in the raised foundations
the heart of that builder's heart.

As though he had risen and pleaded,
so did I understand.
The form of the dream he had followed,
in the face of the thing he had planned.

When I was a king and a Mason,
in the open noon of my pride,
They sent me a word from the darkness,
they whispered and called me aside.

They said-"The end is forbidden.
"They said-"Thy use is fulfilled.
Thy palace shall stand, as that other's,
the spoil of a king, who shall build."

I called the men from my trenches,
my quarries, my wharves and my shears.
All I had thought I abandoned,
to the faith of the faithless years.

Only I cut on the timber-only,
I carved on the stone-
"After me cometh a Builder,
tell him I, too, have known."

Brother Rudyard Kipling

A TORCH OF LIGHT

One dark clear night I looked outside
And wondered what's beyond the lights
The twinkle dots a world so vast
The blinks of stars remind of glass

My mind began to leave my soul
To travel far beyond the poles
The speed of light became a breeze
I wondered what, what could this be

An infinite space so broad to grasp
No human feeling could ever match
The guide I had I could not see
Then I remembered my three degrees

I saw the lights becoming close
With guides unknown of many host
I understood what just appeared
Masonic travel became so clear

I just perceived what's to unfold
My first entrance, which I behold
I thought of all, in mind in me
And recollected my first degree

The more I traveled the more I saw
Between two stars my mind had told
A story far beyond the spheres
Of working tools I held so dear

And then I fell in deep black holes
Passing in and on in chambers toll
I thought again what could this be
And then I thought of two degrees

My mind controlled all moves I made
But to return I wished and prayed
I swore to keep all oaths I took
The 3rd degree all clear it spoke

On my return I saw the Lord
And asked him why, what was this all
The birth of man is but a porch
To live the life of burning torch

Can't you remember I spake the word
And you appeared with all to learn
With force and power "LET THERE BE LIGHT"
And I became a torch of Light.

Ezekiel Mu'Akil Bey

BUILDERS ALL

Surely some workman has built
the pillar as well as the spire;
The cross that the painter has gilded
was fashioned in somebody's fire.

Surely men dig in the ditches
preparing a place for the wall;
And someone has made with her
stitches the flag that shall fly over all.

Someone has blended the plaster,
and someone has carried the stone;
Neither the man nor the Master
ever has built alone.

Making a roof for the weather,
building a house for the King;
Only by working together
men have accomplished a thing.

All have a share in the beauty,
all have a part in the plan;
What does it matter what duty
falls to the lot of a man.

Each has a hand in the building,
no one has built alone;
Whether a cross he was gilding,
whether he carried the stone.

Anonymous

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