The Between-Space of Unknowing
(Poem for Advent)
Our weather-eye locks on sky, scanning
for the single promised star.
Augurs we are for the light,
Our Venus hanging on
but dim still —
how slowly she rises
in the heart of December
yet puts us on the run,
how palely she pretends
against the sun's own gestures
precise on the afternoons of ritual
preparation to hold at a distance
what mid-winter's directed once
more must close around us.
For a time our hands are so cold,
our journey so long, unrevealing.
We tell ourselves these are the signs
as we wait, silent, burrowed in this,
the between-space of unknowing.
The press of dark's own chance
to be both revelation and resurrection
we encode in the flickering
of candle at uncurtained windows.
Silvered in shivery silhouette we are
at long last moving to recalibrate time,
called to cross the black-framed threshold,
conceive of our bodies as our vessels
of water and wind, of earth and fire,
four elements purposed, each one one more becoming.
© 2012 Maureen E. Doallas
Below is an audio recording of the poem:
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
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11 comments:
Silvered in shivery silhouette we are
at long last moving to recalibrate time..love how you capture that unknown space..between revelation and resurrection...love this
the between-space of unknowing...i know that place...our bodies as our vessels...each element more becoming...nice maureen...
Beautiful!
Such descriptions to read in my voice, or interpretation of the voice you write in, and then the pleasure of hearing your voice and passion for your words. Very kool presentation. The entire poem read so smoothly, an excellente, description of winter and times in our lives.
I love the title and heart of this poem - the between-space of unknowing. The ending works for me too, with the elements.
So telling in imagery.
You woo us with your words, into that place - a place, by the way, that fills most of our temporal time- between revelation and resurrection; and you encourage us to examine the experience, live it mindfully.
http://www.kimnelsonwrites.com/2012/12/17/moses-like/
Very nice! Enoyed the read.
It is amazing, isn't it, how a voiced poem can render many more shades of meaning over one on the page? This one is a revelation.
Wonderful imagery in your wonderful words - and loved your reading.
Anna :o]
the travelling of light and being
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