Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CLOSING GESTURE, by JOHN BROOKS WHEELWRIGHT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CLOSING GESTURE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The spheres are weary of the ether wind
Last Line: Forever changeless against a changing sky.
Subject(s): Faith; God; Prayer; Religion; Belief; Creed; Theology


THE spheres are weary of the ether wind,
weary of humming endlessly;
their praise of God thrills not as when it rolled
forth when God himself was young.
Nature wakes every morning lame from giving birth,
the valleys faint to view the long exhaustion of the hills,
the mounting ages are as vain as the flutter of a paper prayer.
Mould, not truth, lies under
the interesting heaps of refuse of the scientists.
The flame of faith, beaten out and scattered abroad
by the clumsy wiles of states that detest their swollen greatness,
flickers and sinks.
Comfortless art crumbles to dust in prisons,
out of doors in factories and advertisements,
beauty takes on unhappy forms ...

The choristers of God are weary of his court,
to Seraph love seems flat; to Cherub knowledge stale.
Michael yearns to splinter his two-handed sword,
and pare the sable wings of Azrael to the quick.
All the servants of the Lord see that their tasks are hopeless.
Yet out the burning caverns of deep space,
God, though he aches with his weariness, scourges our backs,
with his relentless whip:
roaring and rolling through the shuddering all,
comes his command,
"Go on!"

Myself,
stand against the black drift of storms,
trustful as the appealing brave, praying with his arms,
invincible as Hamilton in granite,
firm as a colossal crucifix upon a mountain trail
forever changeless against a changing sky.




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