A Revelry of Light & the Living

A Revelry of Light & the Living

-Or Dawn of the Surfer Dudes-

 

A Recollection of Having Observed

A Convergence of Sunlight

And the Joy of Being

 

So, God Created Great Sea Creatures

And Every Living Thing That Moves,

With Which the Waters Abounded,

According to Their Kind.

 

-Genesis 1:22

 

---

 

-AUTONOMY-

 

What soul does not adore the sea,

When in its wont is loosed and free

To seek its measure in the might

 

Of waves that swell

In swathes of light!

 

To swoon within the mind that makes

The green surf moan before it breaks,

With prisms rising from its crest

That sparkle in a sunlit fest

 

To utter first the morning prayer

Among the birds that gather there -

To move with them along the strand

And leave but footsteps in the sand

 

 

 

-SENTIENCE-

 

Beyond the surf, soft bearded clouds

Descended on the rousing sea-

 

And violet shafts

Beamed through

Their forms,

And then,

As one,

 

They beamed for me

 

The air grew thick,

The ocean swelled,

Then, slid beneath

A balmy spray

 

That etched the scene in cursive loops

And swirling skirts that twirl in play

 

So wreckless in its whirling grace �"

As brash as it was sure and bold!

Like life’s great epic in a flood

Of indigo and gleaming gold

 

Then, supple flesh rose in the glow

And dove in limber, sleek descent

Into the ocean’s teeming depths

And my profound astonishment

 

Each noble snout seemed like a lance,

Ascending through a spangled mist

That crowns a place within the void

That heaven’s thrust cannot resist

 

 

 

-AFFIRMATION-

 

Then, knelt I on that morning’s dune

And cried to God who rose on high

To let this blessing be the one

I keep until my time to die

 

Then, free to seek my time and place

Within Creation’s gleaming ring,

 

I flew into the rising tide,

And sensed a queer

 

But holy thing:

 

What blessings come

With careless joy!

 

What good things

Beg as one to be,

 

But in the open hearts of men

Who worship at the ancient sea!

 

-VENERATION-

 

Each dolphin seemed

To swoon in play,

Abandoned

In a revelry

 

That moved the man

Whose naked soul

Had joined them

In their comity

 

 

 

I swam with them,

And they, with me

 

We pleasured freely in the whim

 

That teased the laughter

In the light

 

That caused our hearts

In joy to swim.[1]

 

-RESOLUTION-

 

No better deed was ever done

In sudden grace, its flag unfurled,

Then was that holy burst of light

That ushered life into the world

 

-

 

Hail, Holy Light,

Offspring of Heav’n First-Born,
Or of the Eternal Coeternal Beam
May I Express Thee Unblamed?

   Since God is Light …

-JOHN MILTON

---

[1] Echoing the idealism of the young Romantics, Paris describes an epiphany he experienced while re-reading parts of John Milton’s Paradise Lost, as an old man. Whether he flatters any of those poetic giants too much is up to the reader to decide. However, Paris believed that even if he did cross the line, he should be excused, given his deep admiration for God and the best of His creations �" Poets, dolphins, and surfer dudes.