The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
—Gerard Manley Hopkins, God’s Grandeur
—Gerard Manley Hopkins, God’s Grandeur
CONTRA MUNDUM
Like silt at the bottom of creek boulders,
wading against the current must be residue
of a proclaimed apostasy, a paradise lost,
somewhere East of Eden. But it was good.
wading against the current must be residue
of a proclaimed apostasy, a paradise lost,
somewhere East of Eden. But it was good.
There would be toil and a struggle for love,
and upon his progeny an edict of suffering
pain at the birth of all begotten offspring.
But does this act not bring exquisite joy?
and upon his progeny an edict of suffering
pain at the birth of all begotten offspring.
But does this act not bring exquisite joy?
What price life if it were merely a wading
through the gentle streams of a lotus land?
Why flaunt dominion over all that grows
or dies for these where nature is never spent?*
through the gentle streams of a lotus land?
Why flaunt dominion over all that grows
or dies for these where nature is never spent?*
Let me shield my heart, hearth, and home
with all the strength and defiance I can hold.
with all the strength and defiance I can hold.
—Albert B. Casuga
06-06-11
06-06-11
* Hopkins
From “Landscape as Elegy for the Unspent” by Luisa A. Igloria, Via Negativa, 06-05-11, http://www.vianegativa.us/2011/06/
2 comments:
The ending couplet is particularly beautiful and reverent.
It is beauty that I am able to squeeze out of a fragment of reality that makes me reverent, Hannah. Yes, I specially like this description. It is au courant.
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