A Request from the Author: If you happen to read this poem (or any of my others) and have any thoughts, please do share them with me.
Plain Tent
A thin layer of cloth
Not much protection against
Whatever force may come
Whether from within or
Out.
A plain span of goat’s
Hair
Is this really the house
Of God?
Bloody from years of sacrifice,
The former hue sullied
Beyond identification.
Sand, sweat, mud and blood
All cover this special seat
have we not elevated ourselves
to a high spirituality?
Chained down
Bound to the ground,
We are visited by God
Who descends to this bit
Of earth.
Forty years to forty days
Righteousness fulfilled in only one.
It is the forty days
Not the forty years
For time is not enough to cure
the finite imperfection
Forty days in the wilderness,
Filthy from sweat and mud,
This is the perfect dwelling
Of the presence of God.
Unseemly to our eyes
No rest in luxury there,
A battle fought
The war’s victory won
No mere innocence or naïveté
The savviest only could
Deal without getting caught
within that trap.
At once fulfilling two tremendous tasks
The one to defy and deny
The greatest temptation to be faced
The other to make atonement for the sins
Of his people
So to demonstrate perfection
Both to do complete right
For himself
And to make payment
For the lack of his people
Just a filthy cover
Behind which hides
The fullness of the mystery of God
Behold the paradox
Those things for which
We are too good,
Those are the very things
That make us worthy
Before the Most High God.
2 comments:
Well, Ashlea, you know how poetry and I don't get along so well. I've read this one three times and I think I am beginning to understand it. I do like your description of Christ in the wilderness, or did I completely miss the point????
Love you,
Mom
I like how you switch us in the middle from thinking about the dwelling place for the ark of God to thinking about the bodily "dwelling place" of the Almighty. Still, you do have a lot of unnecessary wordage, and the overall image is murky. I'm not sure exactly what you want us to get from the poem.
Keep it up! I'm not an expert on poetry, but I do know that writing it can make a person feel much better when something is really "big" inside.
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