The flag that he loved best,

Because he thought that out of its dead ashes

Might rise the Flag of Man.

He would have to wait a long time for that rising,

He would have to wait forever;

For live things do not rise out of ashes,

They rise out of live loves.

That man never knew that his flag had a soul,

He never knew that the world needed the soul in his flag,

And the souls in all flags.