Forgotten Ground Regained
From “The Lawgiver”
Excerpted from “The Lawgiver,” first published in The Living Law: Poems. Wichita, Kansas: Darkly Bright Press, 2024.
א
Blessed are the blameless who live in your lawThe strong single-minded The simple who focusToward this one purpose they half understandWhile my skin was seared with the glory I saw
Blessed are those who walk steady and clearThe highway you’ve sliced through the wide wildernessBlessed are those If they’ve ever existedI’ve kept your commands Don’t abandon me here
ב
The young will be true when they serve you aloneAnd give up their government to no other godsWith seventy elders I crested your mountainYou stood on a pavement of sapphire stone
We looked upon God We ate and we drankThen you called me into your flickering cloudI stayed forty days as your fire filled my mindDon’t let the markings you’ve made there grow blank
ג
O Lord let me live and I’ll follow your wordUncover my eyes to the splendour of your lawYour presence expanded and spiralled above meAll alone on the mountain My strained vision blurred
I cowered in the cleft In the grasp of your graceWhile the shadow of your glory singed the grass off the slopeI would rather be ashes than fade from your presenceI’m a stranger on earth Please don’t hide your face
ד
Raise me up with your word from the grip of my graveMy despair has brought me down to the dustGive me life in your law Lift this dead leaden weightThe gods we’ve imagined won’t manage to save
I ground up their sin and I forced them to swallowThey gagged and gasped as they guzzled it downI watched you withdrawing deep into the desertBut leave us the wake of your wisdom to follow
ה
Turn our eyes away from empty desireAnd let us live again in your wayWe’ve known your reproach The earth opened wideThe unearthly snakes slithered up spitting fire
On the way from Mount Hor to the Red SeaI cast your bronze serpent and lifted it upSet your servant firmly in your wordIn your goodness give life again to me
ו
Stretch your love out to me steadily strungWith precision Like fire in an unburning bushYou don’t speak in vain I am who I amDon’t take your word of truth from my tongue
My uncovered feet found wide open spaceWest of the wilderness On the mountain of GodNow I’ll testify to your name before kingsAnd hold up unhidden my unburning face
Copyright © Jesse Keith Butler, 2024
No part of this site may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems