An Unfinished Poem

(*New Discoveries*, Vol. 3. p. 490. This undated poem is preserved in the archives of the Vedanta Centre, Cohasset, Massachusetts. Cf. "My Play is Done", *Complete Works* , VI.)▶

From life to life I am waiting here at the gates — they open not. My tongue is parched with ceaseless prayers and dim my eyes have grown With constant straining through the gloom to catch one ray long sought; My heart is seized with dark despair, all hope well- nigh has flown.▶

———▶

And standing on life's narrow ridge, beneath the chasm I see — Strife and sorrow, darkness deep of whirling life and death, Of mad commotion, struggles vain, of folly roaming free.▶

On one side this dark abyss — I shudder to see it even — On the other this wall . . .▶