Douglas Traherne Harding

When I was born I had no head

My eye was single and my body was filled with light

And the light that I was, was the light that I saw by

And the light that I saw by, was the light that I was

And many's the time that I've passed by the river

And saw no tollman and needed no ferryman to cross

And I enjoyed the world aright

For the sea itself floweth

And warm I was and crowned.

But one day walking by the river

I met a tollman with an angry face

And many's the time I passed through his tollgate

And paid no silver and paid no fee

But rather I did hide my sheep and goats under the bags of oatmeal

And cold I was, no crown did I wear

But if you're walking down the street

Why don't you look down to the basement

And sitting very quietly there is a man who has no head

His eye is single and his whole body also is filled with light

And the streets are his and all the people

And even the temples and the whole world

And many's the time he walks to the river

And seeing the ferryman and seeing the tollman

The light within him leaps to greet them

For he sees that their faces are none but his own

One light, the light that is one though the lamps be many

You never enjoy the world aright

"Till the sea itself floweth

In your vein and you are clothed

With the heavens and crowned with the stars"