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High Faculty
They tell us dryly: Stop Imagining!-
And look so smug and patronizingly:
Its laughable, this crazy fancy thing,
Removed from every day's reality.
The Maid of Orleans aptly did respond
Her cleric judges who made very light
Of visions, voices coming from beyond
That bade her to take up her arms and fight.
We know full well what the brave maid replied:
Imagination Sires, - of course it is-
This is the gentle ways and means wherewith
The Lord will prod at first and then provide*
This statement,- offered with a candid smile,
In confidence and sweet serenity
Silenced the wicked bishop for a while
And made him ponder the High Faculty.
He laid another trap, - to test her wit-
Could sheer imagining perhaps set free?-
Or,- is a thing if one imagines it
Authentic? fantasy? or heresy?
Imagination! - O high faculty!-
Who dares belittle, trivialize, malign
Images recondite in deep a sea,
And of a portent arduous to define.
From the beginning present, - up they surge-
Icons - purporting-- possibility-
Well up in triumph to emerge
As truth, and purposeful reality.
*St. Joan's reply to the Grand Inquisitor
Oh wisdom of the mystics deep that she,
The maiden all too well perceived - "Invent"
(In Latin "Come upon" a verity)
An image of the Truth, from heaven sent.
*Saint Joan's reply to the interrogators of the Inquisition.
(c) Elizabeth Dandy
