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N. C.
Wyeth, illustration for The
Boy's King Arthur, 1922
Courtesy
Wikimedia Commons
Hear Pavel read "The Sword" on pavelreads.com.
THE SWORD
What if, submerged, the
Lady of the Lake
Did catch the sword
Excalibur and shake
The pearl-blown hilt, the
dusk-enameled blade
That from the ore of
magic Wayland made?
All the knights except
for one were dead,
Those of Arthur’s realm,
those of Mordred,
The son he’d gotten on
his own half-sister,
Half in and out of sin,
his mother’s daughter
Through the night-beams
Bedivere had thrown
What in the moonlight
rapturously shone,
Death and pride
luxurious—such steel
May take offense and
weep, but never feel
She, the demon, daemon,
spirit, fay,
Seductive gave the king
the means to slay
Not only evil doers but
the good—
Excalibur, destroyer of
knighthood
None were left to leave
the field of battle,
No sound but
raven-croaking, war’s death rattle;
What use exquisite
workmanship, white arm?
Unseen the Lady Death who
lends but harm
She lives beneath the
surface of the water,
And swells beneath the
surface of the mirror
Listen
to Pavel read "The Knife That Grips the Hand" (MP3 format)
THE KNIFE THAT GRIPS
THE HAND
Each one has a secret life
Of which he may not be aware,
Thumb the sharp edge of the
knife,
It has a blade that will not
wear
It has a handle made of bone,
A hand that draws it from the
sheath,
There is a skin but who has
known
What organs live the skin
beneath?
But if he flicks a thumb
against
The steel of it the steel
will ring,
Be not stubborn in pretence,
The tempered steel of it can
sing
It is the knife that holds
the hand
And grips by force the
gripping man:
Those who think to strike a
blow
Will pierce beneath more than
they know
THE CHALICE OF
ETERNITY
I saw a spider sprawling
into Mass,
The cloister full of
roses in November,
Invisible to all, I saw
it pass,
Crouching to the ground
before the altar
No one saw but I the one
who spins
Webbing for the veil of
time and space,
Genuflecting eight-fold
deference—
Praise and honor, glory
to His face
All that is above and all
below,
Seraphim and cherubim and
beast,
Visible, invisible they
go
Worshiper and acolyte and
priest
To see the blood of
Nazareth is spilled,
The chalice of eternity
is filled
NO PROBLEM
No solution? No
problem?
They say as much in Italy,
They should know, they aren’t
dumb
They also know in Sicily
But we who are not ancient
deem
There must be someone with
brain
Who has the notion of a scheme
To level mountains young again
Himalayas as molehills,
Oceans that a raindrop fills,
All our problems vanished be
Beneath a flower-money tree
But all the old know better
than
The ordinary clever man:
We are not meant to live
without:
Trouble, error, sin and doubt
RED MARS
To see red Mars in perigee
His gleaming shield
Cover the moon with your
hand
So dazzling is she—
And with the other hand
Cover the glow of the
city
That yearning mimicry
THE
TENT
Expect
to sleep less as you grow older
It is a
provision for the future
The
dream of God assumes a conscious form
And we
see less of daylight shadow
More of
what exists that light obscures;
Not to
see by light we are the light
Penetrating
our own darkness—
God is
with you all your life
And you
with him—stranger, friend
Then, as
you wander without moving
The
stranger comes with shining friends
And you
welcome him with rare gentleness
Prepare
a meal of your own love
And wash
his feet with love’s baptism;
Then He
in turn will touch your eyes
With
love-sustaining water of awareness—
Awake,
the night pours out
Like
water from the
basin of the sky
IT
IS YOU
I’ll go
no further, so long a road
Through
countries uncountable, boundaries crossed
Memory
itself breaks down and weeps
No he
said, hold on a bit longer—
The elm
trees dying, the maples their leaves
The oaks
and alders wither, lament
But you
will come to a place like others
Long
familiar until you cross it
And then
I will see and welcome you
To a
place in the world which is held in peace
A meadow
lost in a great forest
A
wilderness made of only a step
And
though all else will have been forgotten
I will
hold you fast in my memory,
Which is
the world of the world to come
It is
you, it is you, come here at last
Waiting
so long and yet a moment
Since I
saw you last, my dearest child
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