ceremony of innocence

how do we answer when we are not called
but sense a need that we might just fulfill
not just a matter of good heart or will
yet this is all that others here have hauled
these gardens are wide open none are walled
the sky above us seems serene and still
their golden names have not the power to kill
mothers and wives have keened and bawled
in vain for there's no answer to the theme
that life proposes unless we take the chance
to make our own way through the gloomy wild
the whole thing will appear as just a dream
no one retreats and yet there's no advance
the adult seeks for guidance from the child