Reason Ends at Love

I.

All reason ends at Love

And there, at the borders and the foothills,

The cyclical train halts

To let the world weary and adventuresome off.

From the station they depart

Solitary or in twos

To cross the wastes and crags

Of false starts, betrayal and broken hearts.

Many lose their way, become sick and hard

Head back to the station and wait...

But reason’s train is difficult to resume

Once quit for the high domain of Love.

It stops to let off passengers

More often than pick-up

And many stops are in darker realms

Than the daybreak lands of Love

Yet those who pass through wastes,

Shadowed valleys and icy streams

To reach the stretching, rising roots

Of Love’s great mountain wall

Will see their trials multiply

At entering fair borderlands

Some will tire on a cliff face

To fall beneath bright mists

Some will turn for laziness—or fear

To wander back through lonely wilds

Some will fold before the crest

And sit and wallow—heedless of how far they’ve come.

Myriads lose all they are

On the mountain walls of Love

Still those who lose themselves upon

The mountain’s sunlit face

And yet continue chanting strong

“Further up and further in!”

These pilgrims cross the peak-tip’s blade

Not noticing its bite

And entering will find an inn

For their journey’s earned respite

II.

“Don’t pillow long your weary head”

The innkeeper will say

“You still have many lengthy miles to travel on the way”

At the summit you thought you’d found

Your journey’s ending place

But in the distance you can see

A higher mountain range

And all your efforts seem to be

A child’s mere bouldering

How can I climb those mountains there?

—I barely made these hills

My weak and fledgling efforts have

All but drained me of my will

“Fledgling? Yes, but don’t you fret”

Said the innkeeper with a smile

“I’ll guide you further on your way

Just walk another mile”

I thought it would be easier

I dreamed of a plateau

But now I see it’s harder still

There’s many miles to go

“You entered Love down at the roots

Of this great mountain wall

And those who failed to make it here

Retreated to their fall”

This journey ever upwards, inwards

Is harder than I thought it’d be

But I cannot imagine turning

That just might be the end of me

“So keep on going upwards, inwards

To the lands above the clouds

And when you cannot go on climbing

Call for me and don’t be proud”

Ridiculous! How can he come

To raise me up from the abyss

If he is here within this inn

While I fall off the precipice?

Then with a twinkle in his eye

The innkeeper did say:

“These lands are mine and I’m the King

I’m sure I’ll find a way.”