Arlo Will

Did you ever see an alligator         Come up to the air from the mud,         Staring blindly under the full glare of noon?         Have you seen the stabled horses at night         Tremble and start back at the sight of a lantern?         Have you ever walked in darkness         When an unknown door was open before you         And you stood, it seemed, in the light of a thousand candles         Of delicate wax?         Have you walked with the wind in your ears         And the sunlight about you         And found it suddenly shine with an inner splendor?         Out of the mud many times         Before many doors of light         Through many fields of splendor,         Where around your steps a soundless glory scatters         Like new - fallen snow,         Will you go through earth, O strong of soul,         And through unnumbered heavens         To the final flame!