Friday, February 10, 2012

Manifold Mystery


What is the loveliness
You keep on your lips?
What scenes lay behind your closed eyes?
What do you ache for
In clenched finger-tips
What tunes your unspoken cries?
What draws your laughter?
What stirs your soul?
What weeps from inclines above?
What spawns the longing
That curses this world
Oh, do you think it is love?

***

What causes Him
To grant one more day
To a thankless and erring race?
What shapes His patience
Toward rebel-slaves
Addicted to sin’s vile disgrace
What tunes the mercy
That wakens the dawn?
What stirs His might from above?
What fills the vastness
Of centuries gone?
Oh, do you think it is love?

***

What forms desire?
Or then what fulfills it?
What is this double-edged sword?
What inflicts a wound?
But oh, then what heals it?
What is both race and reward?
What rends the heart
Like a lightning bolt
And yet is gentle as a dove?
What is this
Manifold mystery?
Oh, do you think it is love?

© Janet Martin


1 comment:

  1. I think it is! Lovely write, I especially like, 'What do you ache for/ In clenched finger-tips'
    Really good rhyme and meter too!

    ReplyDelete

I hope you enjoyed your pause on this porch and thank-you for your visit!