A Revelry of Light & the Living*

A Revelry of Light & the Living

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

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-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 tranquil 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 reckless 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.

-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

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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