T.S. Eliot

~ East Coker ~

I said to my soul, be still,
and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing;
wait without love
For love would be love of the wrong thing;
there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope
are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought;
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness
the dancing.

 

~ from Four Quartets ~

we shall not cease from exploration
and the end of our exploring
will be to arrive where we started
and know the place for the first time.
through the unknown, remembered gate
when the last of earth left to discover
is that which is the beginning;
at the source of the longest river
the voice of the hidden waterfall
and the children in the apple-tree
not known, because not looked for
but heard, half-heard, in the stillness
between two waves of the sea.