Well, November is running away from us and so far I’ve only managed one poem for my 12 Poets Project this month. So it’s time for another one, this one inspired by Denise Levertov’s wondering “Flickering Mind”, one of the best poetic expressions I have read of the human mind’s struggle with religious devotion. You can read Levertov’s poem here. Levertov’s poetic form is quite fluid, so I have gone with a looser interpretation of it here than I usually do. Happy reading!
Being (After “Flickering Mind”)
In this multiplicity,
this many-stranded, fragmentary
fold of life, I run
and fly
and flee from You, my God,
who Are
the constant in the changing whole.
I am absent, You are
firm,
the still point in this constant blur,
the first thought and the final Word.
I sit
and yet I seldom sit. Martha-movement
takes my sight
and I evade Your searching eyes.
To stop,
to rest, to be before You,
this is costly; nonetheless
I live not if not
within You.