Seamless. Father Ralph Wright

      

      SEAMLESS

      BY

      RALPH WRIGHT O.S.B.

      © 2011 Father Ralph Wright O.S.B.

      All Right Reserved

      Published in eBook format by Monograph Publishing

      ISBN-13: 978-0-9840117-4-2

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      POEM

      a poem is an acrid

      semi-ecstatic

      immaterial

      sneeze

      breaking beautifully

      out of silence

      after a moment’s

      pause

      poised

      outside history

      taking flesh in scrawl and revealing

      the mind’s mystery

      THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY

      only a thin

      film of glass

      protects the moth

      as it bangs

      again and again

      against the light

      in the dark night

      from the sizzle

      of extinction

      ALTHOUGH DUST

      (John 17: 23)

      Although dust

      I am loved

      by the one

      eternal

      Son of the Father

      just as intensely

      as this same Father

      loves his one

      eternal Son

      O mystery

      O majesty

      O wonder

      that what we

      in our wildest dreams

      could not conceive

      has been

      by God's own Word

      quietly revealed

      WOMAN

      within her

      and of her being

      comes one to be

      who will not cease

      she speaks each day

      God's Word made men

      uttered again, again

      and again

      into our silence

      hers is a dignity

      that none may measure

      hers a patience

      refined by fire

      hers a majesty

      unperceived

      in the painful tedium

      of giving birth

      the mystery

      of her being

      echoes the mystery

      of God creating

      and out of darkness

      Light

      MARY

      the young girl gazes

      at the dark still waters

      of Siloe

      her smile reflects the ecstasy

      of her surprise —

      surprise at her young self,

      surprise at God,

      at children, priests, camel-sellers,

      camel-dung checkers, donkeys

      and all the Temple turmoil

      of being NOW and being alive —

      she feels the calm of that full-shading love

      that wraps her round

      and in the shadow of this deep content

      she knows what God's own power could do in her

      at the appointed hour

      GREAT CALM

      I am filled with joy

      that God loves you

      with great competence

      for my love is infinite

      in clumsiness —

      when I wound

      He heals

      when I damage

      He restores

      and you are always

      in his hands

      O great calm

      O mighty God

      O quiet joy

      BECOMING MAN

      The humble moment

      of total fusion

      in darkness

      and silence

      seen by no one

      heard by no one

      felt by no one

      a greater detonation

      than any nuclear fission

      and for a long while yet

      no one will know it has happened.

      THEY TRACE MY BLOOD

      they trace my blood

      through generic Adam

      back to the first

      life on the planet

      — a continuity that does,

      I must confess,

      boggle the mind —

      but God made me

      as if He had made

      no other one

      no other where

      for a Lover

      each person happens

      NOW