Anonymous - A Ballade of the Centre lyrics

When all the shores of knowledge fade Beyond the realms of night and day, When the quick stir of thought is stayed And, as a dream of yesterday, The bonds of striving fall away; There dawns sometimes a point of fire Burning the utter dark, that may Fulfil our desperate desire. Into the darkness, unafraid, Wherein soft hands of silence lay Their veil of peace upon the blade Of too bright thought, we take our way, In changing of desire we pay Whatever price the gods require, Knowing the end is theirs - and they Fulfil our desperate desire. Upon the stillness we have made Between our working and our play A deeper stillness yet is laid. Like some white bird above the sway Of summer waves within the bay Peace lights upon us ere we tire, And does (yet how, we cannot say) Fulfil our desperate desire. Envoi God of the world, to Whom we pray, Thou Inmost God to Whom aspire All hopes that Thou wilt not betray— Fulfil our desperate desire!