Outer Darkness

To be as if
You never were;
Is to be cast,
Into outer darkness:
The ghastly, vast,
Outland gloom,
Beyond the gates
Of the City of God;
Where evil dogs range.
Silent, as it is dark,
For there is no sound;
Anymore than sight:
For the time of signs,
And senses is over;
Every sense has its signs,
They were all misused.
The man awakes,
From the struggle of death,
Into absolute loneliness:
Not a hint -
Not a shadow -
Of anything outside
His own consciousness,
Reaches to him.
All is dark -
Dark and dumb;
No movement -
Not a breath of wind;
So scents -
Not a touch;
Nothing to suggest,
Being, or thing,
Beyond the man himself;
No sign of God:
Anywhere!
God has so far
Withdrawn from the man;
That he is witting only,
Of that from which
He has been excluded:
And that;
There is never to be,
Even the dream,
Of change.