OR ELSE, I HAVE NONE

OR ELSE, I HAVE NONE

if God is not a grace note but the whole symphony

why should I whittle my candle down to no kindling at all

it's weary I am of mincing the matter

just to be given a hearing and then to be thought

clownish and unsubtle

a curiosity, countrified side show

then call me out freakish

I know who made me

how would I barter Him away

sweet Donne did not they say

accounting all metaphors Him

and even then so far below the mark

of comparison men would be blinded

in love by one stray spark

from His burning

not to offend the careful the candid affable

shall I be loathe to name

the one who calls all names

into Being

far from me Lord, my Door

I am no mime

to call thee timidly as if Thee were

such a wisp of a ghost

and I the embarrassment to all modernity

then let the universe be numb

I will have none of it if not Thee

my soul, and I accounted dumb

the fool of fools

you rule my language sun by sun

or else

I have none.

mary angela douglas 17 december 2022