The Epiphanies__________
...
We cannot cling to poems
like reins on a starlit gallop.
They fall from us, decompose,
become the planets we pursue.
We trace our early orbits
looking for coins and lambs,
compositions in the Milky Way
and when poems come again
into the night sky, they fall
from heaven like stardust
on earth. Nativities sparkle
in snow--glimmers of a hallowed
present. But our own lungs send
forth the stars that spirit us to
Bethlehem.
...
(C) Douglas Donaldson 2007
...
We are told that astrology is a discredited science, but for all of that it was the astrologers who developed the idea. The planets and comets seen moving through our constellations were assumed to be more than cosmic rocks and gases. When God said in Genesis, “let them be for signs and for seasons” neurological connections were forged in the human mind. God's children were then and there given a potential for poetry and from the ancient poems came the unexpected and more necessary gift of prophecy.
So, if God is seen moving among the stars and constellations, He is more evident still in our own thoughts—especially those thoughts that take wing and become the oracles and the canticles that live in the literature and music of our race. It was not fire and rock per say that moved the Babylonian Magi to Bethlehem, but the idea that such a sight was a portent—a sign of miraculous birth; and this idea was safely kept for generations in the poems and prophecies of several cultures—our own musings spirit us, as the poem says.
The Rock and Gas Companies we will have with us always. They want to harness energy, perfect technology and charge us whatever the market will bear for the heretofore-free gifts of God. I have started this blog hoping to add a bit of gold dust to my side of the balance. I want to visit Abraham’s Muse again and again and put our canticles into columns. It is simply good to immerse our selves in delight at the wonder and depth of God’s creation. It is sometimes also good to lament our folly and admit our sorrows.
So, if God is seen moving among the stars and constellations, He is more evident still in our own thoughts—especially those thoughts that take wing and become the oracles and the canticles that live in the literature and music of our race. It was not fire and rock per say that moved the Babylonian Magi to Bethlehem, but the idea that such a sight was a portent—a sign of miraculous birth; and this idea was safely kept for generations in the poems and prophecies of several cultures—our own musings spirit us, as the poem says.
The Rock and Gas Companies we will have with us always. They want to harness energy, perfect technology and charge us whatever the market will bear for the heretofore-free gifts of God. I have started this blog hoping to add a bit of gold dust to my side of the balance. I want to visit Abraham’s Muse again and again and put our canticles into columns. It is simply good to immerse our selves in delight at the wonder and depth of God’s creation. It is sometimes also good to lament our folly and admit our sorrows.
2 comments:
Doug- what can I say? Your mind is brilliant and beautiful! I love your insights-- thank you for sharing!
What in rhe world is a canticle? Maybe you should link the blog to dictionary.com
Post a Comment