Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Meditations in Fast Times: 22. We are born of time


Note to Readers: “Meditations in Fast Times” is a devotional writing experiment for the Season of Lent. Each day during the season, I am writing a poem as a meditation on, taking as my inspiration and intertextual basis, T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets”, as well as incorporating the daily office, current events, and other readings—some the same as those Eliot used while composing his seminal work and others.

                22.

We are born of time;
surely it is time
that makes the river of life.
This river of unstable water,
drop upon lively drop,
carries our substance
from one and another adventure,
then on to each newer start.

We are woven of time;
surely it is time
that writes the book of life.
Life is written in
the language of experience;
death translates our essence,
by a more complex language,
into the stardust of creation.

We are the Music of Time;
surely it is Time
who writes us into songs
that dance with rejoicing waters,
drawn from saving springs!
The Book is full of our songs,
therefore, sing! Sing, for you are
the undying music of the Music-Maker.

© 2014 by Elisabeth T. Eliassen

Meditations in Fast Times: 21. The truth of the rose


Note to Readers: “Meditations in Fast Times” is a devotional writing experiment for the Season of Lent. Each day during the season, I am writing a poem as a meditation on, taking as my inspiration and intertextual basis, T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets”, as well as incorporating the daily office, current events, and other readings—some the same as those Eliot used while composing his seminal work and others.


                21.

The truth of the rose,
lies in no ghostly apparition,
but as that sweet music,
borne among clouds as a dream,
that passes through the waves of the sea
to be born into the garden of our seeking.

The truth of the rose
defies test tube and lab;
for in as much as the volatile ester
can be created beyond cloud and sea,
the truest circadian emission of rose
can only be realized in the garden of experience.

The truth of the rose
lies enfolded in the mystery of eternal, recurring Spring,
which willfully disturbs the world with vibrant color and
soulful perfume that cannot help but rise like delicate music
through our tender senses and memory,
in the gardens of earthly reality and of Paradise.

© 2014 by Elisabeth T. Eliassen