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THERE IS A RICHNESS OF VISION WHICH GROWS
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Poetry by Blake Steele
starting April 1993

 
INDEX

A...

ABOUT ANIMAL PRAYER AND COINCEDINCES

          1. THE BIRDS

AND THE DARKNESS HATES THE LIGHT...

              (TO THOSE WHO WILL NOT LIE)

ALL THE LIFE

AWAKENING THE WILD CHILD

 

B...

BLESSED ARE THE FEATHER GATHERERS!

 

C...

CAN WE THINK MUCH ABOUT LIFE WITHOUT LOVING IT?

"COME, I AM THE JOURNEY," HE CRIED.

       WE MADE HIM DOGMA!

CONCERNING, MATERIALISTIC PROSPERITY,

      WAR, PERSECUTION AND OTHER CALAMITIES

D...

DUALITY

 

E...

EDEN - B.C.

 

F...

FIRST THE NATURAL, THEN THE SPIRITUAL

FROM ISAIAH 62:5

FROM ISAIAH 61:8 *

FROM THE ELECTRIC WILDNESS

 

G...

GOD IS WAITING FOR US

 

H...

HOLY CREATION WAS IN A TRANCE

HOLY FAITH

 

I...

I AM HE WHO WAITS TO GREET YOU WHEN YOU WAKE UP

IT WILL BE AN ENCHANTMENT SO GREAT

 

J...

JUDGEMENT (A Comment On Isaiah 66)

 

K...

KISS AN IGNORANT STONE

 

O...

ON A TRANSDOCTRINAL RECEPTION OF CHRIST

ON BEING STRANGE CLAY BEINGS: LATERNS OF THE DIVINE

ON CHRISTIAN SPIRITUAL GROWTH

ON LETTING GOD REMAIN GOD

OPEN THE DOOR TO THE SPONTANIOUS CHILD

 

P...

POST MELLINIAL MEMORIES

POST MELLINIAL MEMORIES

 

R...

REALITY IS SIGNIFIED...

REBEL AGAINST THE SHALLOW, PRETTY PEOPLE!

RELIGIOUS TRAPS I.

 

S...

SEPERATING THE PRECIOUS FROM THE VILE

SOMEONE HAS FAILED TO OPEN THE HOMEWARD WAY

 

T...

TAKE TIME TO DREAM GOD'S DREAM *

THE AUTHOR OF OUR FAITH SPEAKS ABOUT OUR FAITH

THE FATHOMLESS DEPTHS

THE GOLDEN NAME OF A GOLDEN DREAM

THERE IS A HIDDEN FEAST

THERE IS A QUIET SEER

THERE IS A RICHNESS OF VISION WHICH GROWS

THREE MIRROR POEMS

TRANQUILIZING GOD

TRUE BAPTISM *

TWO WORLDS

 

U...

UPON ISAIAH 61:3

UPON THE RUDDY ROSE OF LIQUID GLASS

 

W...

WALKING SERAPHIM

WE HAVE CHAINED GOD'S WORD IN DOGMA

WE LIVE IN A GREATNESS NOT OUR OWN

WHEN I FORGIVE MYSELF FOR CHRIST'S SAKE I.

WHEN I FORGIVE MYSELF FOR CHRIST'S SAKE II.

WHAT IS POETRY?

WHERE IS THE HIGH LORD?

 

51 poems ?

Last Poem in file: CAN WE THINK MUCH ABOUT LIFE

   WITHOUT LOVING IT?

  

         ------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

THERE IS A RICHNESS OF VISION WHICH GROWS

 

There is a richness of vision which grows

as the heart softens, as the mind opens.

"Grow into a better vision," God seems to say,

"And...play in it!"

Jesus came.

The man stood like a flame of God,

His eyes clear with the clarity

of His own Spirit.

God shone through!

Everybody saw it,

(though not all believed,

even then in the light.)

Still, grace and truth flooded out!

"Where the Spirit of the Lord is

is spontaneity of outflow."

So said St. Paul,

though translators missed the implications.

"And Wisdom played in the earth," was an old Jewish proverb.

Here wisdom stood as a full and free man:

He shone with the light that births and becomes

and bore His freedom like a lover should.

His words were to the souls and the spirit

of the people

when He worked to illuminate the people.

But when He was alone,

(I believe this in my heart),

He bellowed his words, and roared His words,

and rang and sang His words,

soaring them out to touch the stars,

until they fell back down like rain

to swallow up animals in the wilderness

with rich, honeyed light.

He spoke in the night to the fish of the darkened sea,

and their scales glistened with His voice.

Glimmering fish sang silently His silvery words

in the morning's first light

as they were gathered into nets.

And their words to the fishermen were,

"Sons of men, you are loved!"

Even as the fish were gutted

and thrown roughly on the decks,

the light of His voice still shown

through their pearl-like eyes.

         *

Everything was then a flaming word of this man's Word

in a richness of vision which grew

as hearts softened, as minds opened.

And for those who could see it,

for a brief season

all common things shouted and danced!

 

 

 

               

 

   

THE AUTHOR OF OUR FAITH SPEAKS ABOUT OUR FAITH

 

Do not let religion shield the truth of you

from me.

Doctrines are doors.

Can you pass through them?

Let me believe in you.

 

 

 

 

 

ON CHRISTIAN SPIRITUAL GROWTH

 

How shall we imprison the life of our Lord?

Ignore Him. Ignore Him.

And how shall we loose the rivers of His Love?

Adore Him. Adore Him!

We must yield ourselves: all our light and all our darkÑ

do not fear, He will hold us!

Be sure we are known, loved and cherished

as we open our hearts to the risen Christ.

All feelings which deny the freedom of truth

come from the force of our alienation.

Listen with care to the voice which heals us

and unfold in waves of elation.

  *

Step aside, and let Christ through

in everything you dream and do.

 

 

 

 

FIRST THE NATURAL, THEN THE SPIRITUAL

 

One must develop a good eye and open ears

before a taste comes for sublime things

beyond sight and hearing, when the heart

cries out to awaken.

Outer beauty sags and fades

in countless small deaths

as inner beauty grows

in preparation for the big death

when the whole soul slips out

into the essence of beauty.

 

 

 

 

 

 REALITY IS SIGNIFIED...

 

 There is a transcendent wonder

 everywhere we turn:

 the worm, twirling in its brown hole;

 the ruby headed sparrow on a twig;

 the gray mouse atwitter in the grass;

 the prowling cat, with candle-lit eyes at dusk:

 each drinking essences of what they are

 through roots sunk into the Light of existence,

 the Source of earth and shimmering stars.

 What does each signify?

 the philosopher cries.

 An immutable resplendence beyond themselves

 the prophets reply.

 

 

 

 

THERE IS A QUIET SEER

(A meditation upon the philosophy of Heschel)

 

There is a quiet seer

who gazes at the seer.

The gazed at seer

most often grows undazzled by the act of seeing,

being too enmeshed in the unconscious act

of memory recall

and interpretation.

The ineffable becomes an image

with which, in our developing judgment,

we are familiar.

This image is in the gazed at seer,

being a miraculous mental reproduction

of the unknown reality

within which

the ever silent seer

who gazes at the gazed at seer

lives in ecstasies

so great

as to have rendered

it dumb.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 ON A TRANSDOCTRINAL RECEPTION OF CHRIST

 

 How shall we receive Christ?

 Receive one child

 in free spirited and holy love

 and behold, Christ is there!

 And the infinite, ineffable

 glory of the Maker is there!

 (From Mark 9:37)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 WE HAVE CHAINED GOD'S WORD IN DOGMA

 

 "Fire goes before Him

 and burns up His adversaries round about."

 Psalm 97:3

 

 

 "He comes to drench you in the Holy Spirit

 and in Fire," John said.

 "He shall cleanse his winnowing floor,

 and gather the wheat into God,

 and burn up chaff with fire that canÕt be quenched.

 

 (The children hand out little paper flames

 to the congregation.)

 

Jesus said,

 "...Cut off hands, pluck out eyes

 enter life or enter the trash heapÕs fires

 where worms don't die,

 where fire isn't quenched."

 

 And the next verse, (an ignored quote):

 "EVERYONE shall be salted with fire..."

 Have the salt (of fire) in yourselves

 and live in peace with each other."

 

 Everyone baptized in Gehenna's fires?

 The Holy Spirit the salt of fire,

 the fire of Hell?

 Gehenna now? Gehenna burning up the trash,

 incinerating the chaff?

 

 Misinterpretations? My deep soul cries No!

 We must long for the fires of Gehenna now!

 How much do we love our trash?

 Will we forever encase our living kernel

 in worthless chaff?

 Let us be salted with the consuming fire of hell now

 and be free of it forever!

 

 The secret stench fades away;

 the grain is ground into holy flour

 and is baked to be devoured

by GodÕs teeth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 EDEN - B.C.

 (Or, I wonder why they never thought

 to simply say I'm sorry)

 

 God moves up and down

 in the breeze of the day

 saying, "Adam, where are you?

 The sky pours down

 its essence of blue.

 Adam is nervously hunting,

 killing animal brothers

 for their skins.

 God moves up and down

 in the lime green breezes of the day

 crying out, "Eve,

 come and let me kiss your beautiful body

 with sunshine, let my flowers fill

 your tumbling hair."

 Eve grieves in shadows,

 sewing together her bloody clothes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I AM HE WHO WAITS TO GREET YOU WHEN YOU AWAKE

 

 To known that which we have refused to know

 because of our fear of it;

 to be in union with the unclaimed nightmare

 in the garbage dump of the spirit world

 is Hell.

 Hell is where the trash is burnt up.

 King David said, "God is also in Hell."

 

 

 

 

 

 

THREE MIRROR POEMS

 

  I.

THE DARK MIRROR

 

Desolate in His bitterness,

the hateful man cursed out into the dark,

"I don't believe in you God!"

And a voice echoed back,

unheard by his atrophied inner ears,

"I don't believe in you."

 

 

 

  II.

CALLING THE MIRROR

 

Every moment of every day

God says, "I cherish you soul,"

and then waits, like an avid fisherman

who lets his fly drift over a likely hole

waiting for a big fish to strike,

God breathlessly anticipates

for the soul to rise and echo His voice

that God and the soul might both rejoice!

 

 

 

  III.

THE BRIGHT MIRROR

 

I whispered, "I love you Lord,"

and heard my own name whispered back,

"I love you poet."

I said again, "I am for you,"

and heard back again, "And I am for you!"

My heart, feeling the boldness of love,

spoke once more,

"I will cherish and honor you my God,"

And the voice of quiet spoke a third time,

with all the authority of eternal silence,

echoing back the contents of my soul.

 

 

 

 

 

 AND THE DARKNESS HATES THE LIGHT...

 (TO THOSE WHO WILL NOT LIE)

 

 Wherein is light and shadow?

 Light and shadow lie most evidently

 in the heart of the one

 who journeys towards the city of no shadows.

 And the darkness hates the light,

 though the light loves the darkness and everything.

 

 

 

 

 

 REBEL AGAINST THE SHALLOW, PRETTY PEOPLE!

 

 Strike out against the tyranny

 of the shallow, pretty people;

 the appearances which have