Before Alpha Realizes It's Omega
still warm from day, watching
the night sky narrate the past
one hundred million years
or more,
consumed by thoughts so numerous
impossible to separate
except as awe.
Dark. Above the bed
passing car lights' rippled shapes
hover, stretch, flicker out,
return, rush past, fade away.
No awe,
curious, accepted patterns,
ceiling narrations
of the future.
Wanda McCollar
The Benedictine monk Br. David Steindl-Rast teaches that the practice of gratitude requires that we allow ourselves to be surprised by the mundane, to learn again to see the world with open wonder.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the way you structure the distinction between being fully human and being just a brick in the driveway as the ability to look with awe on the panoply of creation. Without awe we may see patterns but reality will be happening overhead rather than within us.
Beautiful thoughts beautifully expressed, Wanda! I particularly appreciate these words:
passing car lights' rippled shapes
hover, stretch, flicker out,
return, rush past, fade away.
Thanks, Wanda!
I don't know, Wanda. Maybe not awe-inspiring, but I watch the same display with fascination.
ReplyDeleteThe words you chose: hover, stretch, flicker out, return, rush past, fade away
are sound pictures of what they signify. So nicely done!
These two stanzas work so well together, perfect complements... and I love the title. There's so much here under the surface of two simple and perfectly drawn images.
ReplyDeleteInteresting..I take it you are not a visual artist.If you were you would have a sistine
ReplyDeletechapel style painting on your ceiling to wile away the hours of not sleeping...now that would be awesome Wanda!
The description in the second stanza of the car
light reflections is well done.
Hi Wanda,
ReplyDeleteI'm immediately drawn by the romance and awe of the first stanza but realise that the car lights can create a world of wonder too, be mesmeric in the patterns they trace.
I love the movement in this piece, great job!
ReplyDeletePamela
both stanzas good..but really like the car light....car lights always sfascinate me....like who the hell was in that car..anyways thanks for this
ReplyDeleteAn incredibly fine read!
ReplyDeleteThank you all - how I appreciate your comments. Your understanding helps me revise. Unfortunately, I sometimes don't know when to cease revising.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the difference in scale between the first 'dark' and the second - one so immense, the other intimate, small, yet both wrapped in the same letters.
ReplyDelete