Poem: on wisdom by St. John of the Cross

St. John of the Cross

...For peace and piety abound
In perfect wisdom there, to show
In solitude and quiet profound
A straight and narrow way to go.
This was a very secret thing,
And there I stayed, just stammering,
All human knowledge withering.

And there I stayed, all feeling gone,
Absorbed, involved, and quite apart
From all concerns that were my own,
Deprived of every human art,
And I was made to comprehend
A wisdom had to apprehend,
All human knowledge to transcend...

Translation by K. Jones