Hearest thou me?

Conscious of thy child’s communion?

Meetest thou me as son or spirit?

Yea; closer now than as tender offspring of thy loins,

I sat upon thy knee, inquirer and receiver,

In the long ago.

Yet fettered I by frailties of the flesh,

With poor and halting language of mortal men,

Miserable makeshift, the spirit’s aphasia,

This spoken or written word—