Psalm

MANUSCRIPTSzyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJ 1 4 zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCB Rdrlal'l f'ord b~zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWV No longer do I call you servants, for the serv<~nt docs not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. JOfiN 15 :15 Gentle friend, Illy psalm is a caught breath not a shout of jubilee. Men will display their lungs with halleluiahs to you who know their hearts and are near but will not whisper reassurance to warm a stranger. I lament those sterile silences which depopulate the memory of friends, knowing that each encouragement is a small prayer to you and each derision a forgetting, a questioning of your presence in all mortal abilities. I know your fluid, psychic love should surround and overflow our disappointed bodies like a laughing crystalline stream cleansing the heart-stones of our reserve, like baptismal water of the shoreless shore ~hose tides are the movements of your mind. Should I shout at the souls of men like stricken mutes whipped by the noises of religion whose ears are raped by passionate outbursts w~10seminds are locked in cells a f loud light blind to the inner glow, deaf to the still voice? Should I reverence brocade and jewels? * First prize, literary contest, 1966, poetry division. 15 zyxwvutsrqponmlkjih MANUSCRIPTS I reverence the brocade 0 [ veins on the cheek of my love and glory in the living jewels of Iny lover's eyes. Should I be awed by the tracery of an altar screen when the mine! of my love with its tracery of nerves is the altar of your secret benefactions) My lover's heart is the metronome of Co~pel truth; it is a clock which tells the passage of eternity into time spent together. Son of Man, I shall speak your praises as you speak to man: . for your voice is the burning silences of space and you teach us patience with the mute eloquence of falling snow. I shall not celebrate salvation of promise, with explosions for silence is oil in the lamp of redemption and a lasting light when the other is dri fting smoke. I shall drum a greeting on lily taut rniud : I shall make 111ylong clays and my short days the various pipes of an organ, making dumb ail' announce your presence, filling each hollowness of time with quivering being. Holy Spirit. 1 do not lack words til pr;l.isc "''1.1 : my i,wlg':" pursue you like a swann of bees their queel1 ; they glide like rivers through the delta of my prayers into a dark sea; my reason plunges into the JordanzyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVU and arises dripping praise: « toady. . . . 1 6 zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA MANUSCRIPTS J do 110t d{Jt1I,t "011: your han.IzyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUT Oil II;Y ll(:aci is all c';!1'I\' rhaw which sends juy trickling' 1'('1ween [he fr(Jzcll lUll!;.'; ill the gray wIIl)(I" Ill' 111\' l"'~,ill : vuur sn iil« is lilt, i",,,1 ,,( li~liI ;'1 t he crvsL<1 IJ:t11 "I' pJ'I'j,llu'\': you arc ~larr<JdilligII!Jlill,l!, tension crackillg the slllothuillg ill which men live fcarillg the "1,,rlll ill the face of each other, Corne to me dllrin,g quid (illles : slip into Illy, days ;!s a (ish rdIIrlI(-d II) the SCI ;IS a dr"p adheres tl) <lrIJp as a l.ow nukes good the pmlllise of IIH::I", 1\ , ) knee) ill prayer and my spirit Flows tlll'Ullgh 1111 l1a11<1s'--columns ()i serious wishb like captiv('s with heads depressed "huffling helleath the monumr-ntn) arcl" You who have CIJllfjlHTCIl lily IJ(:';lI'lhi1<1 review the exh;!usl('d desires 1N('ary I)f heillg g'Jds lI11l<i th('III.'clv('~, ( )Ilct' a,; I prayed I seemed to wander through dellli-drcallls hellt':llh thin lids of sallity '. t hen knew that J was walk in» ill 1111'i!)lde<i hr;Jill alld that the valley of tl;e shad()w 'N;IS mv fatal Sci f : thi!t valleys cl.lrlillg illtn v;_dlc\', \1'I're the suhtle argllll)(.'llh () I pride, A lid then ) stood upon a summit of illy lir.uu illld saw helow me was a stonily pl;lill 1Ji" wau-r ill which huge rlJliillg waITS of tt'IlSiOII 1Jl'<lke Oil rucks of (kSPlT;[{(' ;Ipusl rlJpilc "" bpped islall(j,; of sii<-l1('c " :lJIdzyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQ my 1(JlkliJI('S', W;IS the en' iJf ;1 circiillg SC;I gllii. 1:11l moltcJI IIIJIJII IHJlll'ed over 111<.'Llkl' <1lld calJII rippled (J\ltT Ihe 1('1111)('';1 like c(Jlllion fnllll the kllHi IJI ;1 hthn on the brow (',f his sic'I' ""1. ,\lId I saw YlJl1, SIJI] ul ,\1;]11, w;dkillg' (Ill llll' walers "I Jill sIJ!d witiJ h;lllri iJIl1strdciwri,