Life has a use for evil in its flow,
Combining opposites while atoms run.
Dung on the roses makes the roses grow.
From rank effluvia, gross roots and low
Suck at the soil until their thirst is gone.
Life has a use for evil in its flow;
It turns destroying flame to warm hearth-glow,
Making a second day when day is done.
Dung on the roses makes the roses grow:
Great blooms will die and rot as, feeding, go
Small flies with wings like life-spans finely spun.
Life has a use for evil in its flow;
Its seas sustain the cells that pulse below;
Ours live because its dark dilutes the sun;
Dung on the roses makes the roses grow.
This is What's truth whose Why we do not know,
This riddle of the multiforming One:
Life has a use for evil in its flow;
Dung on the roses makes the roses grow.