Here when Confucius came, a half a thousand years before the Nazarene, he stepped, with me, thus into timelessness.

The stone beside us waxes old, the carven stone that says: On this spot once Confucius stood and felt the smallness of the world below.

The stone grows old.

Eternity

Is not for stones.

But I shall go down from this airy space, this swift white peace, this stinging exultation;

And time will close about me, and my soul stir to the rhythm of the daily round.

Yet, having known, life will not press so close,

And always I shall feel time ravel thin about me.

For once I stood