To wonder under great arcing hollows,

to gaze upon the cracking art, 

knowing not what is to follow

and knowing not what was the start

 

To peer into the eyes of blessed saints,

that a billion eyes have seen

and though paint over time grows thin and faint

the eyes still gleen and sheen...

 

Until a violent lick of red

shoots twisting up that christened spire

tragedy and beauty wed,

a millennia engulfed in fire...

 

And as smoke puffs over noble domes, 

the cry of thousands undulate

from the sorrow of its Paris home

to the tears of every country, state.

 

But out of the chaos a voice has broke!

Ave Maria, so tender a psalm,

yet strong through the smoke.

Live on, Notre Dame.