How much do I wish to know
\nabout myself?
\nAbout the world?
\nI was once a king,
\nmany times a king,
\nand the world laughed sadly with me.
\nOffered the solitary hut of a hermit,
\nthe mantle of a priest,
\nthe spear of a hunter wandering mountains.
\nBut it was a secret this kingship thing,
\nthe flowered crown,
\nplumes and feathers,
\nteeth and bits of copper strung on string.
\nI was a king
\nbecause I wanted to be king,
\nnot because of the world,
\nbut for it,
\na calling,
\na thread of noble obligation.<\/p>\n
My soul was solitary,
\na bowl of emptiness,
\na shell left waterless on the shore.
\nSo I determined that to possess nothing,
\nhear solitude,
\nmove without harm,
\nand do no destruction,
\nI would sleep on the great cliff.
\nWear a ruler\u2019s ring,
\nand be king in some indefinite void
\nof time,
\nuntil I could be a child.
\nBe born with nothing,
\nand remember to hear other voices,
\nand leave the scepter frozen in stone,
\nan object of awe to a paleontologist,
\nwho discovers footprints from the sea,
\nand knows where they\u2019re going<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How much do I wish to know about myself? About the world? I was once a king, many times a king, and the world laughed…<\/p>\n