The pavilion of the nations was an awesome place that day
   With the throb of martial music ֈneath a fiery display,
With the flags of all the nations lifted upward to the stars,
   With kings and queens and princes stepping from their stately cars.

The peoples of the planet were represented there,
   For the world had been invited to come and think and share.
In the midst of global crises of a hundred separate kinds,
   They came for new solutions, for a meeting of the minds.

“We must have all new answers,” said the leaders of the day.
   “We come from starving people, bankrupt countries, disarray.
Ugly wars are raging ’round us, rivers flood, and cities burn,
   Murder, arson, rape and pillage—death awaits at every turn,”

“We sense,” they said, “that we will have been in every way betrayed.
   Our dreams are now in ruins and our people are dismayed.
Our hope, once placed in state, in church, in God, in love, in race
   is gone, along with faith itself. What now shall take its place?”

Then a man stepped to the platform, to the circle of the light,
   Who with words of warmest greeting said, “We welcome you tonight.
You have come from every nation of this sad and troubled earth
   To seek a fresh beginning, yes, a new and nobler birth.”

“I can tell you,” said the speaker, “in this time of hate and fear,
   Though problems seem unsolvable, frustrations’s end is near.
The turning point of history could be this very day,
   For there is one who shall soon come to sweep your fears away.”

With these and many other words he promised all things new
   To all the peoples of the world, the Gentile and the Jew,
To red and yellow, black and white, the miracle would come.
   The new and golden age would dawn, the old must now succumb.

He spoke of possibilities, of challenges, of goals.
   How man, believing in himself, the universe controls.
”You are the gods of this New Age,” he said to that great throng,
   Which then, transported by his words, broke forth in gladsome song.

A thunderous ovation roared from that adoring crowd.
   With cheers of acclamation both loud and still more loud.
Ah, how the crowd exulted, holding high each little son
   To see him who would tell them of the world that can be won.

Bathed in that light and clothed in white he welcomed their applause.
   Then he, impassioned, spoke of things beyond all human laws.
How shifting in the paradigm was making all things new.
   The awe-struck crowd saw in his words the beautiful, the true.

The throng was hushed, “How could,” they thought, “we live to hear this voice
   Which calls us to this bright design and offers us the choice?
We can now step up to greatness, affirm the spacious plan,
   Give ourselves in privileged service to this dear and cosmic man.”

Then he, as if divining that crowd’s emergent mind,
   How they would make of him the man to guide the new mankind
Then escalate him to a throne, with scepter, crown, and ring
   Where he in wisdom, power and love would rule everything.

He said, “Now you must listen and hear me in this hour.
   There is one much moer endowed than I with wisdom, force and power.
He is himself the one who forged this wide, colossal plan.
   He is himself the greatest mind yet given to mortal man.”

“He has the power to move the world to set the nations free,
   To bring upon our suffering earth its long-sought liberty,
To be the final stanza of the anthem mankind sings.
   And—Ah, the joy!—he even now is waiting in the wings!”

With this the crowd was plunged into silence, stunned and still,
   “What could this mean—A man who now would all our hopes fulfill?”
“Yes!” said the white-clothed figure as he gestured toward the gate,
   Where an entourage moved slowly as if neither soon nor late.

Each eye transfigured upon that group then focused on a man,
   Who by his sheer demeanor seemed all social gulfs to span.
“He truly is majestic,” thought the throng which stood and stared
   As he rode astride a charger white, whose crimson nostrils flared.

He ascended to the dias, more widely to be seen,
   Then stood before that trembling throng with strong and stately mein.
His impact on that multitude was wondrous to behold.
   They then stood still as gifted words upon them he bestowed.

“My dear and noble comrades, co-citizens of fate,
   This day begins upon this earth an era new and great.
For now the gods have chosen that this must be the time
   When all that is is newly made—when all shall be sublime.”

“We gather here from myriad scenes, from every hemisphere,
   Our homes, our farms, our children are the reason we are here.
We seek the unity of earth where faction is no more.
   The ship of state must anchor on a new and peaceful shore.”

“When men of earth must join as one, yes e’en the stars o’er head,
   The masters of the universe, together they have said,
’The ages past and those to come conjoin this very day
   To now transport us to the realm where gods alone hold sway.’”

“My promise is eternal peace, the gods of war deposed,
   We’ll see the age of verdance green, the fig tree and the rose.
Earth will become a garden fair which blooms from sea to sea.
   The parliament of nations ordains these things to be.”

The man (But was this just a man?) spoke on that fateful eve,
   His flashing eyes, his golden voice, his words without reprieve
Moved from his mighty master-mind to every waiting ear
   To capture for the glorious cause each soul, both far and near.

But wait—the speaker lifts his hands, a roar sounds loud and high,
   Then—Could it be?—cascading fire falls from the flaming sky.
The raging conflagration for a moment sweeps the tier
   Before the lighted faces now aghast with living fear.

It swept upon that orator, before that wide-eyed crowd,
   He still stepped out majestically unhurried and uncowed.
“The fire,” he said, “has in myself now cleansed the souls of men.
   The limits on humanity shall never be again.”

From that moment of all moments one could never be the same.
   The nations of the world became the clients of his fame.
The rulers and the ruled of earth, with tears of ecstasy,
   Enrolled to join the legions of that man of destiny.

The next vortex of history was forged on earth that hour.
   A cryptic new compulsion would seize men with its power.
Certain now of greatness, they would stand in glory’s ray.
   The pavilion of the nations was an awesome place that day.

—Dave Breese