Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.
—St. Augustine
Fire!!!eyes blazed with blindness from seeking
After God’s veiled face;;;seeing his glory
Only in its passing-by. White-washed eyes
Left vacant in his waning. In the
Morning,,,just out of the shower,,,a rugged
Face with whiskers, still flush with fleeting dreams,
Gazes back out of glass—reflecting
Rev’rential awe; this!!!is God’s glory
Passing-by. Now and then I see through the
Flaming veil the many fashioned faces
Of God. I had forgotten their lin’age
And mine,,,and not enough seen his constant
Passing-by. “Glory to God in the highest,,,
And on earth wonder for his passings-by.”
i. Kyrie eleison
ii. Gloria
iii. Credo
iv. Sanctus
v. Agnus Dei
9 May 2008 at 9:43 pm
Nice post.
9 May 2008 at 11:03 pm
You can look too hard without realising what’s staring directly at you.
10 May 2008 at 2:57 pm
In the constants, we see changing phases!
faithfully fantasizing
10 May 2008 at 10:53 pm
this is a prayer? its kind of creepy, especially the gazes back at glass part….good writing though!
11 May 2008 at 11:27 am
a very nice piece..
13 May 2008 at 3:34 pm
Nice. Deep.
15 May 2008 at 4:32 pm
Definitely leaves you with pondering thoughts!
15 May 2008 at 7:15 pm
Very nicely written
25 May 2008 at 7:22 am
I really love this one. I like the punctuation style you’ve chosen for this series, too (any particular reason?). The reason this one stands out to me is how you took something so abstract and brought it into a historic-particular moment, especially one so common as getting out of the shower.
27 May 2008 at 3:57 pm
to the punctuation…
As prayers these are to be not so much planned as plainly spoken. Prayer to me is more immediate, more intimate, more spontaneous and more stream of conscience; therefore, pauses exist as emotion is felt, words are searched for or Epiphany catches one off guard. The “,,,”, “!!!”, “;;;”, “((()))” are all different versions of the ellipse (”…”). They are moments that imply pause either for emphasis or out of my own confusion…even from awe.
as to your critique…
I concur. That is the strength of this one in my own estimation. I definitely struggle making that human, tangible connection in my poetry at times. I feel like the first (Kyrie eleison) makes that connection with just the raw emotion of it, but the third (Credo) gets quite a bit more abstract. That said, the Credo is supposed to be a verbalization of belief; this seems to imply an abstractness that is difficult to transgress especially in my self imposed 14 line stanza. The fourth poem (Sanctus) is an attempt to get back to that particular moment; My thought is that the fifth poem (Agnus Dei) will end again in the raw emotion—providing a bit of symmetry.
Thanks so much for the positive comment.
27 May 2008 at 5:03 pm
God is reflected through each of our veils, I think.
28 May 2008 at 2:28 am
“the many fashioned faces Of God”….
“And on earth wonder for his passings-by.”
Wonderful lines. Intense poem/prayer.
28 May 2008 at 7:26 pm
Powerful prayer. Isn’t it odd where we find our Epiphanies, and how fleeting such a moment can be?