If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent

If the unheard, unspoken

Word is unspoken, unheard;

Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard,

The Word without a word, the Word within

The world and for the world;

And the light shone in darkness and

Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled

About the centre of the silent Word.



O my people, what have I done unto thee.



from Ash Wednesday



from Collected Poems 1909-1962 by T S Eliot, © T S Eliot 1963