[BNP/E3, 31A – 56]

68

The King of Gaps

There lived, I know not when, never perhaps­ -

     But the fact is he lived - an unknown king

Whose kingdom was the strange Kingdom of Gaps.

     He was lord of what is twixt thing and thing,

Of interbeings, of that part of us

     That lies between our waking and our sleep,

          Between our silence and our speech, between

Us and the consciousness of us; and thus

     A strange mute kingdom did that weird king keep

          Sequestered from our thought of time and scene.

Those supreme purposes that never reach

     The deed - between them and the deed undone

He rules uncrowned. He is the mystery which

          Is between eyes and sight, nor blind nor seeing.

     Himself is never ended nor begun,

Above his own void presence empty shelf.

          All He is but a chasm in his own being,

The lidless box holding not‑being's no‑pelf.

All think that he is God, except himself.