Author Information
The Language of Wonder
For saiom
In a sisterhood of
ancient lights,
it begins. . . .
In a teeming night sky
ripping open
the unseen
and existing perfectly
without me,
it arrives . . .
But usually the Universe
unscrolls and flies
open like mercy
in the unquestioning love
of a cat—
those eyes of grace
and wild clarity—
It's all worship,
all sacrament,
all God,
even the strand of
distant smoke
strumming the tin air
and wafting
out the blues,
even the chatter of friends
or an icy river finding
gold redemption.
Wonder . . .
bits of happiness
chiseled on the stillness—
one move
and they're gone,
and even now I ask:
How do I know?
How can I
be sure?
No need for questions
when the unknowable
touches the dense world
and the unsaid
replaces mortal words
and even some frail tune
plucked from the
fluid wind
before breaking apart
in wonder.
With purrs of light chanting,
with God in a swarm of stars,
with everything now perfect
in its imperfection,
I know.
Patricia Joan Jones
I very much enjoyed this
Even men have sisterhood through the moon. It is a clarity of being that makes us one. The sexes play a part yes, but come a distant second, in my opinion. If you just look at the work Starward is producing, it is plain to see – there is a powerful interplay of light between all elements. And as you say “the unknowable touches the dense world” in all of us, though I would pause at the threshold to wrap it in sisterhood. Because the teaming night sky is ripped open by love, whether it be man, woman, angel, or otherwise. The arrival begins none other, than where it enters the heart. And that is the playground where light chants with God in a swarm of stars – making all things perfect though our imperfection. That tiny departure mentioned, I very much enjoyed this.
Thank you for your brilliant
Thank you for your brilliant critique that humbled, encouraged and enlightened me. I chose a female metaphor as an allusion to several ancient traditions where the moon is associated with goddesses and the phases of a woman's life (maiden, mother, crone), but you are correct that gender plays a very small part, if none at all, in our true identity and our ultimate journey because our beingness, our essence, transcends gender and even form if you venture inward enough.
I apologize for any unintentional suggestion that one gender is superior to another. Differences compliment each other, keep things interesting and beautiful, but ultimately, we are one in this cosmic dance.
I'm delighted that you gave Starward the recognition he so greatly deserves. Your description of his poetry is magnificent. And so true!
Thanks again for reading and leaving such intelligent insights.
We are all brothers and sisters to one another
Also, I try to keep perspective on this too. We are one race, one people – all of us descendants of the righteous man Noah, which makes every member of mankind – brothers and sisters to one another. No exception. United we are strong. Divided we are weak. Divide and Conquer – is the Devil’s big money game to destroy mankind. Because he hates mankind – because we are made in God’s image. And we must all be united, against the true enemy – for he seeks to destroy all of us.
Thank you for spreading the
Thank you for spreading the message of peace and unity. You make a difference.
And I thank you both for the
And I thank you both for the very kind mentions you have given me in your comments.
Starward
You were the muse of the
You were the muse of the following poem with your magnificent poem and specifically 'swarm of stars'. Earlier in another poem you wrote
of the audience of stars. Bless you .. you are always a muse.
https://www.postpoems.org/authors/saiom/poem/1104389
I had the pleasure of reading
I had the pleasure of reading your expansive and highly symbolic contemplation earlier, and I'm deeply honored to have played even a small part in your magnificence. Whatever subject you spin into gold, whether it's an infinite wonder or a beetle on a rose, you bring your signature wisdom and delicate beauty to every word you touch.
A thousand thank you's for your unwavering support.
It's all worship, / all
It's all worship, / all sacrament, / all God . . . is quite obviously this poem's gravitational center, but it is also the summary of all her poems, and the center from which, as a collection, they proceed (graduate students, take note of this). Just as the vastness of the cosmos is, metaphysically, contained in an atom invisible to the eye, so she points out that mercy, which I take to be the Divine Mercy, can be found in a cat's unquestioning love, wherein is found Grace's wild clarity. She writes of bits of happiness chiselled on stillness; and then asks the one of the questions of the ages---how can this be known, and how can knowing be sure? The answer comes to her from God in a swarm of stars. What the answer is becomes the subject of this poem and is, I now believe, the subject of all her poetry.
A criticism once leveled at Wallace Stevens, first pejoratively and then in a celebratorily positive way, is that he really writes about only one theme, and all his poems are variations on it. I think this is the case for his poetry, and, in its positive aspect, I think it also describes Patricia's. Like Stevens, she appears to write about occasional subjects randomly. Viewed from the perspective of any one of her poems, this may appear to be true. Her poems are individually self-contained, each a fully functional unit. But between them, there is a unity---a connection---a cooperation that is both spiritual and theological; and it is so vast that it must be viewed from a vaster perspective, to see all of the poems as an array, or a constellation.'
In July of 1974, when I was an awkward, clumsy, adolescent, I was fast asleep on a Friday night that was becoming Saturday morning. I believe---I am convinced---that the voice I heard was God's, and that voice commanded me to come outside and look at the stars. I walked out of the house and stood in my parents' driveway, staring up at the stars---and that particular night sky provided a view that was beyond and above anything I have viewed before or since. I have never forgotten that experience, or that view; and it becomes, for my purposes here, a metaphor of what Patricia's poems are doing. Motivated by the Divine Voice, they bring us descriptions, sightings of and from, and cartographies of the spiritual side of the cosmos we inhabit. She shows us that our placement in the galaxy is not insignificant: we are not looking at the center so that we must look out and away from it---we are at the edge so that we can look into the center and, eventually (and with practice), learn to take it all in. Patricia's poems tell us how to do so, and how to do it with the finesse and appreciation such a subject deserves.
I will close with a description I have borrowed from the Poet, John Milton, found in Book I of his epic, Paradise Lost: " . . . advent'rous song, / That with no middle flight intends to soar /
Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues / Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme." Patricia's total poetry is an adventurous song, and each of her poems is a vital part of that song. And it soars---leaving the middle below it, and soaring to the height at which she shows us a vision that, prior to her work, has not been attempted in prose or rhyme. The altitude of her cosmology is like Milton's; the attitude of her poetry's elegance is like Stevens'; but the voice---the spirit, and candor, the invocation and evocation, in that voice---is entirely, uniquely, and powerfully Patricia's. I have only scratched the surface here. Others will come after me to do more, in the short term as well as the long term. Those in the long term will understand more about her because they will see the entire work.
Starward
Your deep and gorgeous
Your deep and gorgeous analysis affirms everything I was trying to do here. As always I'm deeply moved by your intricate attention and sharp eye that, without fail, interprets my heartfelt intention as if you had been writing it yourself. Such an honor. Thank you, and again, thank you!