Author Information
Visiting The Sea's Dark, Silent Surface
Those who deny faith grope through this lost world's mazes---
often, sometimes hilariously, mocking those who have faith
and whose human anxieties are comforted---reminded
that the immediate present is not the last, or everlasting, Word.
Those who deny faith proudly put on their jackboots
to trample their sour grapes into dented mugs and broken cups.
The faithful imbibe, from a delicately crafted chalice,
poems of celebratory vintage, gently pressed
by curvacious Muses' eagerly bare feet.
("Lenin lies---embalmed---within Red Square stones.
"Jesus, alive, walks among the churches' candlesticks."
We cannot reliably visit His empty tomb;
His empty tomb is proclaimed by the fullness of believing hearts.)
Those who deny faith resent those whom it benefits:
the way someone flailing in cold, salted seawater---
beneath a night's sky punctuated only
by stars' twinkles too many light years away---
vigorously
resents those nearby who cling to the buoyancy of wood debris;
while behind them all a towering, once called "unsinkable" stern,
after the forward boilers' exploding protests have expired,
slips beneath the sea's dark, silent surface
and only a roiling belch of air bubbles mark the rapid plunge,
the sloping fall through frigid fathoms of finality.
Starward
Magnificent. With explosive
Magnificent. With explosive use of imagery, you illustrated the futility of mortals to rely only on what can be seen to stay afloat on the "dark, silent surface" that claims us all in time.
The reference to Lenin, though embalmed, still as lifeless as stones, in contrast to the risen savior, was stirring, and the entire theme of those who deny faith and "grope though life's mazes" while mocking the faithful being as someone going under like that fateful ship, was an eruption of eye-opening truth.
Powerful and unforgettable work.
I wanted to thank you again
I wanted to thank you again for this, as I was rather unwell, more than usual, yesterday. I appreciare your citation of the Lenin reference and the contrast to our Lord---as always, you understand exactly what I am striving for in my lines. That is comforting, and I thank you for it.
Starward
Thank you so much. You have
Thank you so much. You have made my whole day, even this coming whole week. I thank you for your fine compliments, and I hope you are well during this frightening time.
Starward