THERE IS A RICHNESS OF VISION
WHICH GROWS
#1
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?
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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