When You Need Words for the Beauty of Creation
"The earth at your feet is fruitful, wild, and weary."
Here is another collection of poems and renditions of the Psalms grouped together because they each offer words to grapple with God’s beauty as it is reflected in creation.
This stanza from the poem for Psalm 19 captures what this collection is reaching for:
Every night the sidelong hip of the Milky Way
Shows itself to you. You see
Backward across miles and years
Along the light of the works of the Almighty.
The earth at your feet is fruitful, wild, and weary.
The wind behind you, now at your face
Blows from another land
Which you have never heard of,
Which you are unequal to.
The sky and the screaming birds
And all the fullness therein say:
Holy, holy, holy.
Here are the poems and renditions for Psalms 84, 1, and 19.
Poem for Psalm 84—Gossamer Flung Prayers That Flash to the Vast Invisible
Let me show you our customs here.
There is tea at 11:00 and 4:30,
There are the spines of books and milk in coffee,
Voices heard from other rooms,
Cool cotton sheets and birds at all hours,
Old wood without memory,
Matins sung in sunlight on surfaces
And other masks magic wears
As it plays across the ordinary altars you have made.
There is a welcome, again—
Even the sparrow finds a home,
And the house martin a nest
As she follows the long path inside herself
Back to the place she belongs and longs for.
There is the temple, which was always only
Your two cupped hands.
There are gossamer flung prayers
That flash to the vast invisible.
There is the wind from before time
That makes flesh of fleshless.
There are questions that come like light
Across the floor at dawn
When you realize you already know
The stranger walking next to you.
There is the slim wafer of the present
Open your mouth
Body of christ
Amen
Rendition of Psalm 84—My Heart Is Bound to Your Dwelling Place
Lord, my heart is bound to your dwelling place.
It is where I belong and long for.
When I end, when I am finished, when I am spent,
I will be safe inside the home and holy place of God.
My heart and flesh shout for joy
To the living God.
Even the sparrow finds a home
And the swallow a nest for herself,
Where she may lay her young,
At your altar, O Lord of Hosts,
My king and my God.
Everyone who makes their home in your house is blessed;
Like birdsong, their mouths are filled with praise.
Blessed are those for whom you are their only power,
In whose heart are the pathways to Zion.
As they pass through the wasteland,
Fountains burst forth
And the early rain wraps the land in blessing.
They walk from strength to strength,
As each one appears before God in Zion.
O God, hear my prayer!
Listen, O God of Jacob.
You are our shield;
Look on the face of your anointed.
A day in your courts is filled with more goodness,
Than a thousand days elsewhere.
I would rather serve at the doors of the house of God,
Than heap up riches in the wilderness with the wicked.
For the Lord God is a sun and a shield;
He is the one who gives grace and glory.
He withholds no goodness
From those who walk with him.
O God, blessed is the one who trusts in you.
Poem for Psalm 1—I Came to the Valley to Dream and Listen
There is a balcony under wisteria;
Up the hillside, across the vineyards,
Past the windmills in Languedoc.
You can see the Pyrenees on a clear day
Across the bright expanse of memory
As one might see heaven
In a vision.
“No one waters the wisteria,” She scoffs,
“That thing has roots in the canal by now.”
I am in a strange land, but the smell is thick
As the petals drop like ripe fruit
That I have never tasted.
The darkling is behind me
And before me, but is not here.
You could be lost here and never know it.
You could hear the whisper of psalms
Until you were ready to begin
What there was to begin.
I came to the valley to dream
And to listen.
The word of God growls and rages.
I writhe and wait.
I moan and meditate and suffer.
I pray the seed’s prayer at night, alone,
Waiting for the infinite tree
To drop its petals into my mouth.
I pray
That I will find water the deeper I go.
Rendition of Psalm 1—Blessed is the One
Blessed is the one
Who does not walk in the path of the guilty,
Nor makes his stand with the rebels,
Nor dwells with those who deride the Lord;
But all his desire is on the torah,
It growls through him day and night.
He is like the Tree
That God planted by Eden’s split streams,
The gift of its fruit is never late,
Its leaves are changeless and costless.
All his work flourishes.
Not so the rebels,
They are withered already, like dead leaves.
They carry their exile within them,
Pursuing the wind.
When the Lord judges all things,
They will not rise.
When the Lord gathers the family of the just
They will not be found.
God knows those who cherished his way,
And gives to the wicked the perishing they sought.
Poem for Psalm 19—The Word in the Wind
Every night the sidelong hip of the Milky Way
Shows itself to you. You see
Backward across miles and years
Along the light of the works of the Almighty.
The earth at your feet is fruitful, wild, and weary.
The wind behind you, now at your face
Blows from another land
Which you have never heard of,
Which you are unequal to.
The sky and the screaming birds
And all the fullness therein say:
Holy, holy, holy.
Why do you wander pathless
In the mountain range of your feelings?
Why do you tremble at all your hidden faults?
Why have you passed so much time afraid?
If you would have light and heat,
Why are you not more in the sunshine?
If you would see the glory of God,
Why are you always elsewhere?
If you would hear the word in the wind,
Face the stars and wait.
Even now your chest, your ribs,
These rafters, this cathedral,
Fills with the breath that made it.
Even now God’s ways wait whole and unmarred
Drawing you back—
You do not need to fill your hopes alone.
The birds at dawn are enough.
The way the leaves are green is enough.
The slim wafer of the present is enough.
Rendition of Psalm 19—The Heavens Declare the Glory of God
The heavens declare the glory of God.
The dome of the sky displays the works of his hands.
The created world pours out speech by day,
And reveals wisdom by night.
Though there is no speech, nor are there words—
For their sound cannot be heard—
Yet their gospel goes out through all the earth,
And their voice to the end of the world.
He has made a home in the heavens for the sun.
It comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber
And runs its course with joy and strength
Like the men of renown of ancient days.
It springs from the mouth of the sky
And its circuit spans the whole of the heavens.
Nothing is hidden from its heat.
God’s torah is whole and unmarred,
Drawing back all people to life;
The word of the Lord is faithful,
Giving wisdom to fools;
The law of the Lord fits perfectly,
Bringing joy to the inmost place of human beings.
The commandments of God are pure,
Opening the eyes of those who hear them;
The fear of the Lord is clean,
It will remain forever;
The justice of the Lord is true,
And able to justify completely.
God’s ways are more to be desired than gold,
And are sweeter than honey.
There is great consequence in keeping them,
And by them God’s servants are enlightened.
Who can understand his own errors?
I want to be declared innocent of all my hidden faults.
Lord, hold me back from all my pride;
Do not let it rule over and devour me.
I long to be done with it,
And empty of all my rebellion.
Let my words and the music of my heart
Bring you delight
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.