1940, 1970 and Today – plus other poems - 3. Two Psalms

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Poem No. 6

Prelude:

What could fall to me, not already mine?

How, before Pentecost, his followers stumbled,

saw darkness through the bright of day,

put fear in every dull corner

that it fathom their timorous glance,

that, with one voice, would call them out

for all the world to shame alike.

How they waited in fear

with groanings unutterable,

inapt for the date uncertain

when confidence becomes the coward

not even to death, but gives

reason to sorrow, skill to expression,

purpose to longing, and

action to love.

But what befell them, not already theirs?

Poem:

Two Psalms

Lord, make me one of mind and memory

blind all that sees not love

stomp all in me

that might spread contempt.

Lord grant me recall every subtle form

of how my apathy did hate

when nothing made contempt its better;

that I remember I had eyes

but no soul to see;

hands to make

but not heart to create.

Lord, make me one with now and then

that every careless hurt I gave

returns to the truth about me.

Make me one with the hate I had

that love might make me whole again.

Make me one of mind and memory.

  °                        °                        °

Rend all from me that is

not love;

that sees not love, that thinks not,

that feels not, in all that is.

A year or two goes by

and growth is nearly threatened

by the strategy of an absent mind;

this struggle finds me yet tonight,

though in this I take solace.

Divide away again and again

all that makes me not but one;

in the void of what I was,

contract to build its better

with these simple terms.

Rend all from me that is

not love;

that sees not love, that thinks not,

that finds not, in all that is.

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