The Gates Ajar
I have seen a Kansas sunset like a vision in a dream,
When a halo was about me and a glory on the
stream;
When the birds had ceased their music and the
summer day was done,
And prismatic exhalations came a-drifting from the
sun;
And those gold and purple vapors, and the holy
stillness there
Lay upon the peaceful valley like a silent evening
prayer.
And I've gazed upon that atmospheric splendor of
the West
Till it seemed to me a gateway to the regions of the
blest.
I have seen a Kansas sunrise like the waking of a
dream,
When every dewy blade of grass caught up the
golden gleam;
When every bird renewed the song he sang the night
before,
And all the silent, slumbering world returned to life
once more;
When every burst of radiance called up a throng of
life,
And all the living, waking world with melody was
rife.
And as that flood of life and song came floating
down the plain,
It seemed to me those golden gates were opened
wide again.
__Albert Bigelow Paine
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