Hymns

themerrypapist

Seated at the back of this cathedral, where

The comers-late and comers-rare together

Waited for the final bell, chime of release,

I kindled with a blazing understanding.

-

I came here to confess my sins

When I was young, and little faults

Took grotesque shadow-shapes upon the wall

Of alabaster conscience, cast there by

The still unsullied light of innocence.

I waited for my Father in a pew,

And looked behind me often at the

Brazen, mammoth exaltation of

Great organ pipes above a gothic door.

They looked like some celestial city

Half-descending down to join the rites

Of worshippers to its own intonations -

Paleolithic whale-songs offered to

An unseen presence, closeted in gold.

-

Now, aged and clouded as I am, I feel

A burning, splendid, newfound clarity

Of how and why you fill me,

You, whose face I have not seen

In years, not since we parted ways

At close of academic year and

Launching mortarboards:

You echo in my soul’s soft caverns and

Within my marrow-tunneled bones just as

The breath of benthic bellows strums

Metallic throats into an iron tune.

You make my senses and my rounded

Solitude reverberate with

Rising, coruscating, full-bright

Hymns.

  • Author: themerrypapist (Offline Offline)
  • Published: February 26th, 2018 01:29
  • Category: Unclassified
  • Views: 43
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Comments2

  • Lorna

    I'm not religious but you have captured the awe I have felt whenever visiting a beautiful cathedral..... Russia, England, New York..... takes the breath away.

  • orchidee

    I know - some places can be horrid - dingy, foreboding, cold, etc. Glad you found some coruscating now *got out dictionary to look it up!* lol.



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