Outside

Outside the gate of Paradise

I stand, like Eve

and all those gone before,

a fierce wind blowing

across the desert

and I am homesick

not for southern breezes

of childhood-not for any place

I have lived,

not for towns

where wandering scholars

paused for awhile, sometimes years-

not for summers in houses

East and West and even England

where we saw greening of the mind

in great libraries.

Bodleian, British Library,

or the American Huntington-

I am not yearning for these points

on my long journey,

but for that place of sacred origin

set behind the gate

an angel guards,

where Blake's lamb

is small and soft

and a burning tiger

lies down with him in brightness.

BETTIE ANNE DOEBLER*

* Bettie Anne Doebler is Professor of English emerita at Arizona State University.

Copyright Anglican Theological Review, Inc. Spring 2006
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