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Two Poems by Kathleen L. Housley
from the Lessons for a Young God series
The Heavens
“The heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament
displays his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech and
night to night declares knowledge.” Psalm 19: 1-3
Alone in the night, the boy gathers our stars.
They have formed into a spiral galaxy
revolving slowly in his grass-lined basket.
Near the bottom, a pulsar chirps amid
the hum of interstellar background sound.
Light years condense to nanoseconds
as he plucks a black hole from our void and vault.
He holds it in his palm like a prized cat’s eye marble
found in the dirt of a distant eon, then waves it
over the basket of stars. Their spectra quiver.
Fiery plumes illumine his face, and time blinks.
Come dawn, he releases them back to us,
one by one, like fireflies rising from a glass jar.
When his parents awaken, they find him asleep,
dreaming of firmaments beyond the scope of words.
While the dog star, happy to be set free,
trots amicably westward, catching a scent
on the morning air as if of Eden after the rain.
Wind
“And he shall be shelter from tempest,
refuge from storm,
an ever-flowing stream in dry ground,
a shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.”
Isaiah 32: 2
It is for me, essence of spirit and breath,
to help the child comprehend his names,
foretold in metaphor’s multiple tongues,
with worlds within each unmarked vowel.
Blown north, Shelter from tempest shall sail
a small skin-boat through steep, cold seas. Twirled west, Refuge from storm shall trace
in the dust of the kiva floor the path of the moon. Driven south, Ever-flowing stream shall carry water
in an ostrich shell across the Kalahari Desert. Blasted east, Shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land
shall learn of Dreamtime and the taste of roasted bogong moth.
Until the Unnamable One answers to all names,
called by quill whistle, hand-held drum,
dried gourd, springbok rattle,
and the low-pitched drone of the didjeridu.
Kathleen L. Housley has written poetry and articles for numerous journals including Woman’s Art Journal, New England Quarterly, The Christian Century, and Image; the latter two publications having published other poems in the Lessons to a Young God Series. An Affiliated Scholar at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, her area of concentration is the interconnection of religion and American culture. Housley’s first book, The Letter Kills But the Spirit Gives Life, explores the lives of five nineteenth-century suffragists, one of whom translated the Bible and had it printed by Mark Twain’s publishing company as part of her battle to prove the intellectual capability of women. Housley’s most recent book, Emily Hall Tremaine: Collector on the Cusp, is available from University Press of New England. Tremaine, a famous art patron, was a Christian Scientist whose interest in abstraction was based on her belief in non-duality.
Copyright © 2004 Kathleen L. Housley. All rights reserved.
This page was published July 2004. |
