Rovers and Voyagers!
We gather today to look through this life.
A lightning word, life — it means forever,
And that’s a mighty long time.
I will show you there’s something else:
The After This World!
Let me call to you, to this darkness deep within.
Nay, my good friends, this is no fantasy,
No careless product of wild imagination.
Hold your breath. Make a wish. Come with me.
We’ll begin with a spin,
Traveling to a world of our creation
Take my hand, and close your eyes,
Let your spirit shine and light your way,
Like raindrops in the sun, like diamonds on the rough.
Like Flowers in the sun, like Snowflakes in the night
Like raindrops in the flood, in the emptiness of the storm
Let us travel together, to the edge beyond the shore,
Through time and space to the borders of your waking mind,
Where darkness and light are one.
For within lies a precipice along this peculiar penumbral path.
Yes, there! Breathe deep the gathering gloam.
We move through a desert of Stuff and Substance
Of things and ideas; a place not only of sight and sound,
But of mind and dreams;
‘Tis the middle ground, you see,
Twixt Smoke and Mirror,
Light and Shadow,
Mirth and Madness.
There lies The Pit of Fear and
There lies the Summit of Knowledge,
Entangling Science and Superstition,
Indulging Feeling and Emotion
Ah! There! Look yonder! Beyond lies a brave new world.
See the storm, see the fall,
Each drop an idea, Shimmery and sparkly,
Just reach out and grasp,
A handful of dreams,
See what lies within this ocean of imagination;
For what is an ocean but a multitude of drops?
Listen close, listen tight:
See that door floating in the night?
You unlock this world with the key of imagination.
A key of Self and Yearning,
A Door of Passing within the Veil,
A liminal portal beyond the Pale.
Ask not how much of your mind is left,
Ask how much of your time, for we have so little.
Will you go beyond the Pale, and turn the key in your heart?
Ask yourself now: what wonders lay in it?
Yes, look around and know!
For this will only have what you bring to it,
What will you put into it.
Will it be a realm as vast as space
And as timeless as infinity?
Will Xanadu be your decree?
Shall Alph, the sacred river, run on,
Through caverns measureless to man?
Will it be of never-ending happiness,
Where you can always see the sun,
Day or night?
Or a bitter and sallow world,
Where you long to see the sun,
In darkness and screams?
There is no life I know
To compare with your imagination
Living there, you’ll be free
If you truly wish to be
Know now, there is no turning back.
For in this place, things are much harder:
Here in the After That World.
Cause in this life, you’re on your own.