In the Synagogue of Night Light of gold and then of silver A shawl on the shoulders of the world That bows to the sun In the synagogue of night Pavel June 29, 2011 “In the Synagogue of Npavelight,” a reading: http://www.pavelreads.com/
Secret Prison They’ll try to change the planet Into a secret prison Where God can never find us But prisoners may summon The prisoners can sing In that secret prison Though it be the cell Of the ruins of oblation No crypt of death can hold God’s beloved Son, Nor keep Him in the cell […]
Look Out of the Window… Look out of the window, see How the wind moves through the leaves Each one green and of its own Free and graceful in the clear stream O my father, this I know full well These are the trees of Paradise Where I will dwell Pavel June 10, 2011
Age of Miracles We all look solid-built enough, No one who looks can look through us, We are not paper, stone and rough, Two-legged walls we seem by guess And yet there is a wind that blows From far, the farthest far away That only someone frail can know And only someone small can say […]
The Morning Stars When his daughter died he planted a pine – When he died himself it burst through his death As if from the tomb in which he lay What did you plant for us, child of God? We wait for the tree that will shade your tomb In a dark soil rich with […]
Bread of Ice Do I not bleed money? Are not my five wounds five decimal points? Is not my crown a woven star of diamond? Am I not scourged with your defaults? Do I not bear a heavy cross of gold? Does not my cup run over with petroleum? Is not the spirit I breathe […]
Those I Love That dark trail As thick dusk solidifies Beneath the tall trees Cathedral or tomb of memories Then to break through At the uphill end of the track To the green meadow and the open sky To see spread overhead heaven’s bright work Those strong swift clouds in the light And how they […]
Nothing Lies in Silence Long Hold up your hand or stamp your foot A movement makes the mountains tremble, Footfalls stop the rising sun If in the place and time most fragile I saw the truth of this today When something dead began to breathe, A memory I once retained Took up a thread, began to […]
Why Reach for What Does Not Exist? Why should I lament my son Who lived in flesh by death undone? No one would grieve for wind and dust That in the body placed its trust Nor for phantasm memory A fond and dim sterility That spills away like morning mist I rolled inside the […]
Somewhere Somewhere there is Shangri-la Where men and women never age, Bird song is an opera And every infant is a sage Drowsy weather always spring, Beneath the willow rivulets Gently flowing trill and sing To fishes at the minuet In Shangri-la there is no greed, Rational it is to share The harvest and there […]
Who Would Dare Smile? Don’t read this if your heart is soft, Your heart is not of granite stone I speak of Patrick, less than two Whose parents beat and broke his bones When officers arrived too late To save his little life, febrile, With broken back and broken ribs Sweet Patrick tried to smile […]
One of Us The old ones saw like us A great wall rise and crumble Admit, expel Barbarity and anarchy Defend and give away Concord and stability But now the wall divides The human from the inhuman The creature and the function The soul from the switch And it is derelict, a ruin The dark, […]
Citadel It wasn’t just a place to name the animals To guard the Tree of Life To know the good of life and not the evil It was the citadel impregnable, a refuge of the trees A rampart of the oaks and tamarisks Walls and towers made of limbs and leaves There was a peace […]
Bad Night A seabird driven landward by a storm Circles overhead, expected guest, We have been waiting for the wind to form, Apocalypse approaching, east to west The Christ of God comes riding on a cloud, No vapor any more but head and flank, Steed of Consummation and the proud Recoil, the angels rank on […]
This is the Time of War I tried to write an anthem for the future What will be and calls to us unseen Committed by an evil to encounter Sing for us until we come to be There will be a war not thought of yet Those who know it not will know it then […]
Playthings of the Gods Playthings of the gods Who aren’t really gods but still… Paul and Peter warned us Of their errands and effronteries And we who ape their powers Pretend possession of their insights But they are greater rebels Deep in their conspiracies Between their world and this A gulf exists They peer across […]
An Ancient Kingdom Along the shore of Honshu I saw six mounds Where ancient kings were buried They are taboo And long established custom has it No one may delve or enter Centuries ago A wave rose from the sea And drowned their kingdom Now, on autumn nights The lights of their processions Flicker on […]
That Tsunami The wall of seas came rolling in Deliberate, unstoppable A massive wave of gray This is how the dead come forth From all their graves On Judgment Day The weight of them, the mass of them Rolling on and on And who can hide The vanity of living things Illusion and the pettiness […]
