Adoration of the Magi Tapestry Designed by Edward Burne Jones with details by William Morris and John Henry Dearle |
Mysteries seeking the Mystery,
Following the light but leaving none.
Asking the customary quintet of questions,
But answering none.
Bequeathing us no gift
To illuminate their identity.
We see only their shadows in the light of the Star.
Emissaries to the newborn King
From the myriad banished nations,
Forging a path to the Kingdom
For all of us who lost the way to Eden.
And what each seeker saw is veiled in silence,
Known perhaps not even to himself.
For even in that heavenly illumination
Shadows linger in the corners
To shroud the hidden meaning of the night.
JTC
AMDG
Asking the customary quintet of questions,
But answering none.
Bequeathing us no gift
To illuminate their identity.
We see only their shadows in the light of the Star.
Emissaries to the newborn King
From the myriad banished nations,
Forging a path to the Kingdom
For all of us who lost the way to Eden.
And what each seeker saw is veiled in silence,
Known perhaps not even to himself.
For even in that heavenly illumination
Shadows linger in the corners
To shroud the hidden meaning of the night.
JTC
AMDG
I really like this poem, Janet. They are veiled in silence, both before and after they wander into the frame. I get a similar sense from Eliot's poem. Unlike the shepherds, we do not know that they went their way rejoicing. They departed from our view, but were they ever able to be at home again? And did they really know what they had seen? Do we?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Craig. It's funny though. I didn't want to write a poem, I wanted to post a poem, but I couldn't find what I wanted. I looked at Eliots and I like it, but it just didn't seem to be what I wanted to say, and now you say they are similar. ;-)
DeleteAMDG
Our source of light not coming from ourselves - our epiphanies veiled in silence, unknown to even ourselves.
ReplyDeleteGlad to have something to ponder this day.