Lord, I ask that my soul's turmoil may be stilled;
so that---like a wave of starlight or of some sea---
the comfort of the great Poet's Psalmody
may flow over and encompass me,
and the vacancy in my soul shall be filled.
Despite how halting, and how unworthily,
I come to You, I shall be blessed by your clemency.
Starward
[*/+/^]
Author's Notes/Comments:
This came to me as I thought about the significance from an event that took place on a Friday night in July, 1974 (I was not then foresighted enough to record the date). A gentle and polite voice---unlike any I had ever heard and most definitely not a fleshly voice---told me to rise from my bed, walk outside, and look up. I did so. The night was very sultry, and I can remember how warm the pavement of my parents' driveway was when I stepped outside. When I looked up, I saw the stars, in that perfectly clear sky, in an accute clarity and grandeur that I had never seen before and never since. After some time (I do not really know how long I stood there, awestruck), my parents---who had been awakened by the sound of the door I opened when I went out---summoned me back into the house and told me to return to my bed. The next morning, when they questioned me about it, I simply shrugged my shoulders---as I did not wish to describe the experience so that they could subject it to their usual skepticism or belittling. (After sixteen years with them, I had some knowledge of where the pitfalls and traps were set, and how to sidestep them.)
When I looked at those stars, those great and glorious signs to remind us of Christ's cosmic creation, I knew nothing of how a star operates (I know precious little more now than I did then); I did not know their names; I did not know the numbers that represented their declinations or right ascensions. I knew none of this, and yet the vision---which partook of both the spectacular (the vastness of outer space) and the intimate (that starlight being received by my own two myopic eyeballs)---was not reduced or truncated in my experience by my lack of knowledge. The experience did not require my knowledge, as if I could bring anything to it, but only offered itself to my receptiveness. Yes, the world intruded upon me, ultimately, in the person of my aggravated parents; but the experience itself, without the requirement of technical or practical knowledge on my part, has remained with me to this day.
The third line alludes to David, the Psalmist, lover and beloved of Jonathan, prince of Israel.
Incredible story! I too have
Incredible story! Beautiful prayer! I too have similar experiences of a summoning to take in the glorious essence of the stars and the heavens. I also hug tress barefoot on the grass stargazing. It only just happened a few nights ago. There is something so reverent about these millions of tiny lights lighting up the dark! Awesomeness happens.
Don't let any one shake your dream stars from your eyes, lest your soul Come away with them! -SS
"Well, it's love, but not as we know it."
I made a couple of slight
I made a couple of slight changes to the text of the poem since you commented; therefore, it is not exactly the poem you read when you commented. The difference is slight, but I wanted to be up front and transparent and admit that a slight changes have been made.
Starward
Still everything and more it
Still everything and more it rolls along beautifly the spirit of the poem unhindered and all the better for it!
Don't let any one shake your dream stars from your eyes, lest your soul Come away with them! -SS
"Well, it's love, but not as we know it."
Thank you for your gracious
Thank you for your gracious words.
Starward
Thank you. I am very glad
Thank you. I am very glad you understand what I was trying to convey. Although it happened forty-nine years ago, I can remember some of it like it was just last night; yet, ironically, I cannot recall which of that July's Friday nights it happened on. But it has a tremendous impact on my life---moreso the older I have gotten. Eveb as I think of it now, I wonder if my passing from this world to Heaven will be something like that, and I take great comfort in that possibility that it was, among so many things, a possible foretaste of that transition.
Starward