If the way before you lies dim & bare
And shadows linger in the midnight air
How shall you know where your footsteps tread
Among the silent ranks of the dead?

Patience dwells not in distant flame
Nor hides in halls that whisper your name
It waits like ghosts in the chapel dust
Not far nor near, but bound by trust

Yet if your thoughts are thick with cloud
And dreams like mountains wear a shroud
Then rivers swell with spectral moan
And you shall walk this path alone

O seeker cloaked in mystery’s guise
Lift not your gaze to idle skies
For each lost hour, each squandered breath
Draws you closer still to death

Let not your nights be drunk on sleep
Nor waste the days you cannot keep
For time is a tomb with an open gate
And the path before you will not wait