Poem July 23, 1955 Issue

THE PEACEFUL KINGDOM

William Aubert Luce

The peaceful kingdom is no island lost
In some remote, uncharted void of sea
Or sky. It reigns where darkness has not crossed
The far-flung dawn of Love's simplicity
With crude confines of lust and ruthless deeds.
No momentary borrowed happiness
In sin can satisfy the silent needs
Of those who sift the sands of loneliness
For jewels of Soul. Oh, do not close the door
Of recognition on the sweet repose
Of Mind and man, but to the heart restore
That valiant love which vanquishes all foes.
Beneath the worthless dross of sentient strife
There gleam the substance and the strength of Life.

The peaceful kingdom has no prison walls
Or iron chains; no jealous armies stride
In enmity across its sun-swept halls
Of thought; no sepulcher of sin can hide
Love's precious child within a crumbling cell
Of crime and callousness. O captive son,
There is no tyranny, no death, no hell.
That night is past, the siege already won.
The liberated heart possesses now
The cloudless clime of Spirit's sanctity,
And matter's warring navies cannot plow
These clear, untrammeled depths of purity.
Beyond the ruined fortresses of fear
The turrets of Mind's paradise appear.

William Aubert Luce

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