FIRST LOVE
Poetry by
Blake Steele
INDEX FOR POETRY FROM 1982 to Nov. '83
A--------
AND CHRIST SHALL COME IN A FIERY SKY
AND THE PEOPLE WERE THE PARABLE
A LITTLE RUMBLE OF THE RIVER IN A SONG
A PRAYER
A PRAYER SPOKEN LIKE A QUAKER
A PRODIGAL MEETS HIS LOVER
ARDOR
A
WAR CRY AGAINST THE MAN OF SIN WITHIN
B---------
BEAMED THE MAGI FACES BRIGHT
C---------
CHURCH N A HOME
MARCH 1, 1983
D----------
DELECTABLY
I BURN AWAY
G----------
GLORY O CHRIST TO YOUR MAGNANIMOUS NAME
GOD LOVES BEAUTY
GOD SLAYS HIS LOVERS INTO LIFE
GREEN IS LIVING - GREEN THE COLOR OF HIS KINGDOM - O
H----------
HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, ON THE WIND
I----------
IF A TOAD SHOULD PLAY THE GAME OF ART
I HAVE WRESTLED WITH THE WIND
IMMACULATE CONSUMMATION
INTO THE KING'S CUP
INTO THE WHITE FLAME'S KISS
IT'S ALWAYS GOOD TO BE UP ON THE ALTARS AGAIN!
(TO CHRISTIAN POETS)
I WRESTLE TOWARDS THE DEVIL'S DEATH
I WRITE TO YOU MY MYSTICAL LOVER
L-----------
LORD, MAKE ME WHITE AS THIS SHEET OF PAPER
LOVERS IN THE FIRMAMENT
M-----------
MIDNIGHT OIL BURNING
O----------
ON A SLOW FEAST OF REVEALINGS
ON GENESIS 18
ONE JOHN 17
ON ISAIAH 33:10-12
ONLY GOD CAN GIVE THE DEATH OF SELF
ON THE CHRISTIAN POETIC
OUR FLAWLESS CHRIST
P-----------
PRAISES UNTO THE SWEET AND GENTLE FLAME
S-----------
SALVATION
SECRET CHRIST IN THESE OUR WEARY DAYS
SHE IS THE SHULAMMITE CELESTIAL MAID
SOLID RIVER
SPIRIT OF PRAYER -
SPIRIT OF PROPHECY
SWEET BURN
(INSPIRED BY ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS)
SWEET VISION, BURN AWAKE!
T-----------
THE ANOINTING
THE BROKEN EYE
THE FEARSOME CROSS FINALLY FLINGS
THE HIDDEN SAINT MINISTERS TO HER LORD
THE LION OF GOD AND HIS ARMY OF LAMBS
THE PURPOSES OF PORPOISES
AND ALL GOD'S FLYING PEOPLE
THERE IS A FIRE BORN OF STRIFE
THESE WORDS ARE FOR GOD'S LAMBS
THE SINGING HOUSE UPON THE SEA
THE SWEETEST MAIDENS HEAVE THEIR ALL FOR CHRIST
THE THOUGHTS OF GOD INTO ALL THE WORLD NOW REACH
THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY AND BEYOND
THOSE CROWNED WITH SILENT THUNDER
TO FACE A FREE PERSON
TO KNOW WITHIN YOUR HEART THE BLESSED BROACH
W------------
WHEN YOUR EYE BE SINGLE
WORD OF GOD ARREST MY MIND
Last Poem - GLORY O CHRIST TO YOUR MAGNANIMOUS NAME
--------------------------------------------------------
POETRY - FIRST LOVE
The Beal's house......(Sept 1982 - Sept 1983)
A PRAYER
A
pure heart shall see you God,
For you are pure.
A pure heart is simple
In its one intent:
To be alive in the reality of you;
In its one pure desire:
To be an expression
Of your holy nature.
The gift you have given us
--My Father and my sovereign King--
Is the Spirit of Holiness
Like a fountain of life
Deep in the heart.
Well up O waters
Clear and simple,
Bathe my deep mind
In the warmth of your being.
Trickle through me purely
Until I grow strong and kind,
Then rush through me powerfully
Until I am
As you are,
A gentle life-giving torrent
Of healing love.
BEAMED THE MAGI FACES BRIGHT
Sapphire blue in glassy beam
Transfixed to awe the pilgrims three,
Rolling on the camel's backs
As sailors oscillate at
sea.
Sacrosanct, so seemed the star,
Guiding pundits from afar;
Fierce the journey to drink a look
Of elixir smelled in Holy Book.
Primal wind within the ear
Inwrought knowing they were near,
Immanent, auric, day tide free
--This lisping child epiphany!
Suffuse the stable in nimbus light,
(Rumbling, subtle, quavered air),
Lucid glits of laughing white
Sparkled up through everywhere...
Exalted innocence they'd sought!
God had reached them with His thought...
Beamed the Magi faces bright!
--Angels steeped the starry night!
THE HIDDEN SAINT MINISTERS TO HER LORD
She sits in silence, then opens wide and sings,
till winds of God come catch her outspread wings,
and cast her 'neath the bright incessant sea,
to helpless drown, O God, in love of thee.
AND CHRIST SHALL COME IN A FIERY SKY
And Christ shall come in a fiery sky
And bring the yawning dawning day.
This fiery sky
His saints shall climb
Into the heat of His Holy Name.
Yawning wide to receive His own,
His Holy Name shall be as one;
Reaping all His blood had bought.
They within Him did abide
One within His Name of Love;
Those who bore His heavy load
Abide with Him when Angels whirl
One with Christ in kindled air.
When the Kingdom finally flung
The million fuming Seraphim sung,
And Christ for all his lovers came
In wild and Holy searing flame.
A LITTLE RUMBLE OF THE RIVER IN A SONG
When the earth remembers awake
and returns for the sake
of the Lamb who is Lord,
adored shall be the I Am
He,
sweet glassy sea within
and Seraphim singing praise
to raise the minds of those
who once closed the heart of life,
(now the wife of Christ to be).
Wholly free within that happy river,
its crystal waters shall shiver the soul
into love and righteous fear.
Quite near is our Lionhearted God,
so
very near are we to dry-shod pass through
the murky flood to that brighter shore;
and more than we have sought
shall be the lot which will rumble
in,
tumbling through the riven sin
which weaves its heavy veils
of pride and lust across
the minds which fear the cross,
and make that meek and gentle Lamb
their wolf-toothed enemy.
LORD, MAKE ME WHITE AS THIS SHEET OF PAPER
Lord -
make me white
as this sheet of paper,
modest like a little bird,
unadorned,
brown and plain,
sitting in a small hidden corner
of the house of your glory.
Only you, Oh Lord,
can bear beauty and glory
without ostentatious pride;
only you are worthy of that high state
of royalty which you are.
I would be as proud as Lucifer
if you did not restrain my madness.
Lord, help me be diminished in my eyes.
I'm only a common speck of dust
in an incredibly wondrous Universe.
This lyric wind I want to touch,
to
ride on, to be -
is you!
If you should carry me for a while
on your Holy breath,
make me remember I am but dust
and small and menial,
and you are the wind,
and you are the largeness of the sky!
I WRESTLE TOWARDS THE DEVIL'S DEATH
Nail this snake unto the tree Lord,
Pin the serpent to the cross,
In his dying I am free Lord,
All God's gain is all his loss.
Secret serpent, subtle still,
Lurks within our soulish will;