The Poetry of Pavel Chichikov

     PAVEL'S NEW BOOK, From Here to Babylon, is now available on Kindle!  

Listen to Pavel on CATHOLIC RADIO INTERNATIONAL; new programs are posted on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

See www.amazon.com for more information about Lion Sun: Poems by Pavel Chichikov and Deep Wonder: Poems by Philip C. Kolin, a collection of "poems you can pray," both published by Grey Owl Press, or write to nlevine@erols.com. Read the review of Lion Sun on Scribble on the Net, an electronic journal of New Zealand and international poetry. Also by Pavel are Mysteries and Stations in the Manner of Ignatius  and Animal Kingdom, from Kaufmann Publishing. Pavel's poems inspired by Goya's etchings are at www.homagetogoya.com. And a selection of his photos can be seen at Catholic Images by Pavel Chichikov


Read American Apocalypse, by "Nova," a page-turning fictional exploration of possible social collapse. Enjoy artist Timothy Jones's blog page, which features his painting "Fallen Oak." And be sure to visit the lovely site on the Way of the Cross at Gethsemane Garden Stones!  
All poems on this page are by Pavel Chichikov. They may be freely distributed, if not for profit, upon the permission of Pavel Chichikov (fishhook@erols.com) and must be credited to Pavel Chichikov. No alterations in the text may be made. All copyright restrictions apply.



Rudolf Schiestl, "Wallfahrt nach Gõßweinstein," 1927

Fembohaus Nürnberg

Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

  

  

 

THE GATE DREW WIDE 

 

A pilgrimage begins with pains and errors, 

A pilgrim starts with agonies and blisters, 

Hips unjointed, tendons strained and stretched 

Back and shoulders ache, a tired wretch 

 

But suffering buys strength if he persists, 

Scallop on his hat, cross-staff in fist, 

Lost or strayed, the sun will show the way, 

Farther can he walk with every day 

 

And if the promised city does recede 

The road, though long, can furnish every need, 

A place for every bird and man to rest 

One to his faith, the other to his nest 

 

And thus the miracle: the length he strode 

Until the end, though long or short the road 

Meant nothing to the getting of the goal: 

The gate drew wide to welcome in the soul 

 

 

 

PRAY FOR ME  

 

I wrestled my antagonist  

No angel with an iron grip,  

No enemy anonymous  

No wrenching of a Jacob’s hip  

 

A bald and bloated atheist  

Self-reviling, self-disdained  

Whose heroes were the anarchists  

Who murdered nuns and priests in Spain  

 

We wrestled in an arid place  

Some prison or a prison cell  

And there the fiend revealed his face

You could not name this Penuel—  

 

But when we had exhausted each  

The other’s strength entirely,  

He drew his breath and then beseeched:  

Do not be angry, pray for me  




CROWDS

 

Whom did you see at your baptism, tell—

All who on Earth and in paradise dwell,

Some in their blessing and some in their sleep—

I saw a great city and crowds on the streets

 

Crowds of the living who came to a stop

To witness your baptism, drop and by drop

Until in a shower your skin was washed clean

Of sorrow and anguish and all that demeans

 

They stood and they waited and silently viewed

The soul and the flesh of the living renewed,

Countless the crowds in those great thoroughfares

To see how the blessing of glory is shared





 

Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

 

 

A BRIDE AND GROOM 

 

If the times of torment come 

The faithful to the catacombs 

Descend with candle and with stick, 

The trimming of the candle wick 

 

When darkness moves and magnifies 

The emptiness of Satan’s lie, 

The power of the world above 

To conquer simple, holy love 

 

Then in shadows Love confides 

The Church, His true beloved bride, 

And where she is an altar set 

Is where His two or three are met, 

 

A bride and groom if only one, 

An altar in a catacomb 

  

 

 

THAT NOTHING CAN REMOVE 

 

There is a chapel in the soul—

Have you ever seen that place? 

It is what Judas never sold, 

It is the safety of God’s grace 

 

In that place is no regret, 

The door invites, the candles burn, 

The altar is a table set 

Though none an invitation earn 

 

Even godless you may bless, 

May enter in and kneel in prayer: 

Deliver us from emptiness

Enter now this moment, dare 

 

A chapel furnished from the start 

With furnishing of precious love, 

It is the chapel of the heart 

That nothing ever can remove 

 

If you live or if you die 

It will be there forever more, 

All are welcome but the lie 

And ever open is the door 

 

 


 

Matthias Stomer (c. 1660–c. 1650), "Man Reading a Book by Candlelight"


 

 

TOLD TO THE STARS  

 

Look for yourself in the story  

In that great story book,  

The illustrations are gory  

But it all comes out well—look  

 

Here you are in the center,  

Neither page one nor the end,  

Turn down the leaf at the corner,  

You can read it again and again  

 

The story has never been finished  

But the cover is closed at last  

When the error of time is abolished  

And the future is bound with the past  

 

Only the Author can open  

His book to whatever is there:  

Whatever of you has been broken  

Is told to the stars and repaired  

 


 

YOU WILL BE SAFE

 

I drive them down a long steep hill,

A small van with the ones alive

And time is difficult to kill

 

Too narrow now to turn around

Duration only runs one way

And keeps dynamic constancy

 

Down the narrow zigzag road,

Few, but precious is this load,

Take them through it carefully

 

They trust in me to drive them through

This narrowness, I turn the wheel

By sureness and the commonweal

 

A pleasant way this by-road takes,

Little ponds with ducks and drakes

Bobbing in eternity

 

A crossroad at the bottom goes,

A gorge with silver current then

Unthreatening the silver flows

 

All is pleasing, even rough

Terrain is somehow tame enough,

Docile is this gracious Earth

 

Turn and turn again by faith,

Unknowing where the road will end

You will be safe as you descend

 

 

 

The Poetry of Pavel Chichikov / Last modified January 29, 2012/
Poems copyright 1994-2012 Pavel Chichikov/  
URL: http://users.erols.com/fishhook/.  
Opinions expressed here are solely those of the author.