Moment of Silence: Maurice Sendak and poem "The Emperor Comes"

[ysabetwordsmith]

Famous author Maurice Sendak has passed away.  He wrote a number of childhood classics including Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen.

The Emperor Comes

The pearly gates stand
unlocked yet unopened.

A trail leads away through
the knee-high swishing grass
toward the far edge of the forest
where the trees lean close to whisper,
"Did you see?  Did you see?"

There is wilderness in paradise,
room unbounded for the wild things
and the huge white looming moon.

There is wilderness,
and boy-bare footprints
in the damp sand of the beach,
going and going onward
where the moon and the wild things are.

Listen, listen
to the whispering trees
who have seen many a young king
come and go.

Listen and hear the sound
of drums and horns
in the wild rumpus

for this time,
it is not a king who comes
but the Emperor

of all that is
young and wild and free.