Psalm 6—Loss the Dark Threads at the Back of the Tapestry

"Long lines you don’t whisper behind your eyes."

Notes from Andy

This poem is another entry in the seven-poem series of poems written in dialogue with George Herbert’s Prayer (1). So far, I’ve done faith, hope, grace, time. Love and memory are still to come. This poem takes up the subject of loss.

Catch Up On Previous Posts

You can catch up with previous Psalms here: 1, 2, 8, 13, 14, 16, 19, 22, 29, 31, 32, 34, 38, 40, 42, 46, 51, 53, 73, 74, 84, 86, 88, 90, 107, 121, 123, 130, 131, 137, 142, 147, and the Guided Tour.

• Read the Darkling Psalter in one Google doc.

• Study this Psalm in Hebrew and English

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Rendition of Psalm 6

Lord, do not correct me in anger,
Nor discipline me in wrath.
Let pity sway your heart for I am frail.
Heal me, Lord, for my very self writhes in worry
And anxiety consumes my life.
As for you, Lord—how long?

Return to me. Rescue me.
Save me because you are kind.
No remembrance of you is breathed in the land of the dead.
Who can praise you from the grave?

I toil at groaning all day,
And at night my bed brims and overflows with tears.
My vision fills with grief and fails with rage.
I can watch myself growing older month by month in the mirror
Because my enemies move endlessly against me.

Turn aside from this one, you who volley sorrow against me.
The Lord has listened to my cries and heard my pleas,
And taken my prayers to his chest.
Everyone who turns their hands against me
Will be dismayed and ashamed and will turn back
As if God's own light rose against them.

Notes on the Poem

The previous poems in the Herbert series have only had an ad-hoc rhyme scheme but I tried to match the rhyme scheme from Prayer(1) for this one. Herbert’s rhyme scheme is a bit hard to catch because it is (1) somewhat irregular and (2) some of the words that rhymed when Herbert wrote the poem don’t write anymore because the way we pronounce them has changed.

The result for modern readers is that the poem is full of both true rhymes and slant rhymes (words that almost rhyme or have rhyming sounds within the words instead of at the end). I tried to carry that effect into this poem too.

Poem for Psalm 6—Loss the Dark Threads at the Back of the Tapestry

Loss the dark threads at the back of the tapestry, 
Long lines you don’t whisper behind your eyes
Bone flutes, dull teeth, panicseed,
Listless days afterward for what rises to rise,
The white unsaid silence, clamor and brine,
The oursness of here, the space between trains,
Word and world bare of rhyme, 
Ghost days that never came, a crescent stain, 
Weird wind full of skulls and dust, red roses and white,
Falcon father, voices in the clerestory,
Long-fingered hands, heart's aerie,
Dark to dark, light from light,
The lamb and the goat given to the Lord,
The thunder at last, the wild, the word.

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Photo by Kilian Seiler on Unsplash