Egeiro
Through reddened night and glowing shade
You view the inner depths of Hade
And wonder if the stars would fade
Buried in this Inferno.
Within this core of earth there flares
A sudden light brighter than stars
And through the raging silence tears
A voice crying “Egeiro!”
You start and look around to find
The speaker of the word – the mind
Which could create such thought to find
A way from this Inferno.
Then in the distance you espy
The flaming man who raised the cry
And watch him swiftly drawing nigh
As e’en he cries “Egeiro!”
His visage burns brighter than all
The burning flames within this pall
Of death and ‘prisonment – this Hell
That rages an Inferno.
“Egeiro” echoes the sweet word
You feel as if you’ve somehow heard
It said before – as if a bird
When flying cried “Egeiro!”
How shall this man – this thing of light
Ascend, like bird, out of the night
And ‘scape the blazing fires bright
Of this endless Inferno?
You watch with widened eyes as he
Strides through the flames so fearlessly
That round him parts each blaze-eddy
He stands and cries “Egeiro!”
Lo and behold! A shining stair
Weaves from the flame and in the air
It rises ‘till it’s gone from here
Vanished in the Inferno.
Without a hesitation, then
The man steps on and so begins
Ascending up the stair to Heav’n
He climbs and cries “Egeiro!”
You follow him as through the flame
He climbs on stairs of very same
Until on the last step, his name
He writes in light: “Egeiro.”
Now feel the cold as stair of stone
The man ascends. Chilled to the bone
You wonder if this is a tomb
Where through ascends Egeiro.
E’en longer than the flames before
Stretches the undulating floor
And stony steps that leave the core
Emblazoned with “Egeiro.”
Ahead, you see? The light-made man
Has cast a ray, and so began
Ascending stairs of earthy span.
The last stone glows: “Egeiro.”
Beneath his blazing feet the sod
Is pressed by footprints like a god
As ever onward up does trod
The man who cries “Egeiro!”
So far he goes until you see
Wound in the wall a root of tree
As thick and dark as irons be
Touched by the bright Egeiro.
More roots appear and gems do gleam
Out of the sod and every seam
Of darker earth displays a dream
Whereon gazes Egeiro.
But never failing is his way
E’en though the wonders seek to stay
His feet, he’s climbing to the day.
Who tarries not? Egeiro.
At last you see a gleam of light
That comes not from the man gold-bright
Ahead of you, but through the night
Stream rays. He sings “Egeiro!”
The steps of sod are left behind
As up a stair of woody-kind
Egeiro walks, leaving behind
The word inscribed: “Egeiro.”
Low groan the steps beneath his feet
And as he higher goes, the beat
Of wind does make this stair to creak
And shake the brave Egeiro.
Further and further he ascends
As underneath him branches bend
Grow small and smaller as they wend
Into the sky – Egeiro
Does not slow on his destined road
But as the stair grows sparse and old
He climbs the faster, as if gold
Were waiting for Egeiro.
A thin, pale branch – the last of all
Now glows the ever-rising call
Bearing his name forevermore
The rising name Egeiro.
The steps have turned into a sea
More endless than the fires could be
And as he climbs to be more free
The man still cries “Egeiro!”
Sometimes his steps sink deep into
The water-way, so swimming through
He strives to rise and seeks a new
Step to emblaze Egeiro.
Shorter than all the steps so far
The ocean is and is no more
Upon the last low wave a star
Of light does glow “Egeiro.”
A stair of wind! So fierce it blows
And filled, at first, with winding snows
That nearly down the man it throws
Who sings to fear “Egeiro!”
But he braves through until the wind
Has stormed its last. He sees now spinned
A stair of cloud with golden tint.
The last breeze breathes “Egeiro.”
Each step he treads he prints upon
The clouds the golden rays of dawn,
And still they glow, e’en when he’s gone:
The last step shines “Egeiro.”
The final stair he now has reached
That neither with the clouds is wreathed
Nor sings with wind so soft and fleet
‘Tis stair of light – Egeiro
Knows now that he is near the end
However, this new stair ascends
So high and far so as to blend
Into the air – Egeiro
Hastens faster than before
To reach the end and ope’ the door
He knows is there. And what is more
To blaze it with “Egeiro.”
Into eternity they rise
These steps of light that leave the skies
And pass until the last star dies
Still cries the man “Egeiro!”
He rises! And the time is not
Like beam of light he’s up and shot
Unto the very shining top
Of these last stairs – Egeiro
Stops for the first time since he
Began this journey. Stops to see
The last of lights blaze endlessly
It sings to him “Egeiro.”
“I am Egeiro,” he replies
And standing tall he boldly cries
“I rise! Egeiro!” whence the skies
Split with the name “Egeiro.”
A beam of light brighter than gold
Shoots from the gap and wraps to hold
The man in glowing crown. To fold
Round triumphant Egeiro.
He’s reached the end, and the last stair
Has on it’s final step the flare
Of that one word which won the air
And lives fore’er: “Egeiro.”
