I know, my friends, it has been long…but not too long: let’s begin

How hard to stretch the mind to higher cause

And art’s true virtues into life imbue

By holding tight to breath and breadth impart

To naught but heart and minds purview

 

And to keep that realm amidst the tattered throes

of friend and foe alike who do not know

what glory seen amidst the vaulted

rise, ethereal interior skies

 

How hard to keep aloft what naught

but soul and mind sustain

like transparent scaffolds, limbs remain

to uphold with airy force what little more

than butterfly wings could destroy

 

But that they may gaze upon the truth

of such beauty rarified;

it exists! And so I must in you,

my friend, confide to save

this world, I give my back.

I Atlas

and you

my world