POEM: Five Ladders

Five ladders stand, and four are good

Five ladders stand, and four are good,
One stone, one dream, and three of wood;
One stood but once, one once for all,
One living, rooted is, and tall;
One was a vision in the night,

One stands each year adorned in light.
One ladder is a maple tree
Which fireflies in galaxy
Of winking light ascend and fill
In warm June dark, when breezes still;
The glowing lanterns Christmas bring,
And angels with the crickets sing.

One ladder is an evergreen,
Which at the forest’s edge is seen
And felled, and wrangled home, and stood;
Sages, angels, as they would
Upon a stair, go up, come down
On branches with a star the crown.

One ladder sad in folly started
By ambitious folk, proud-hearted,
A tower was, mighty and grand;
A bastion strong, and it was planned
To reach Heaven—so it was sung
Till God confounded tongue from tongue.

One ladder gleamed when a man alone,
His head upon a pillow-stone,
Saw angels climbing in his dreams
From Heaven to Earth as on moonbeams—
A shining ladder standing there;
Earthward, Heavenward, a path in air.

One final ladder is the best,
A way of death, a way of rest,
Barren of ornament, save blood,
A lamb upon its branches rude:
Among the skulls, after the strife,
God’s ladder to unending life.

For over twenty years, Frederic S. Durbin has been professionally writing fiction for adults and children. His most recent novel, A Green and Ancient Light, was named a Reading List Honor Book by the American Library Association.

^{Image: Marc Chagall}