Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FINGERS OF GOD, by JANET B. MONTGOMERY MCGOVERN


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FINGERS OF GOD, by                    
First Line: At sunset, the lord of the sky
Last Line: I had been touched by god's fingers.
Subject(s): God; Heaven; Religion; Shintoism; Sky; Paradise; Theology


AT sunset, the Lord of the sky
God of my people—tore asunder the clouds
And through the rents he had made thrust his fingers.
Down he reached till he touched the earth,
Grey and drenched with the tears which all day
Had fallen upon her face.
Then she smiled, and each cloud-tear
That lingered upon leaf or flower petal
Was by God's fingers turned into a jewel-world.
Glowing with color, fit for fairies to dwell in,
Or spirits of babies unborn—too pure for this world.
Then did my old self die, with its pain
And its bitter unvoiced longing for that which had passed me by.
Then was my new self born—
For I knew that at the end of earth's day
Would come the touch of God's fingers,
Tearing the clouds apart,
Turning tears to jewels and fairy worlds.
Had there been no tears on earth's face
She could not have offered jewels and fairy wonders
To our Lord in the sky when his fingers caressed her.
So I turned, as my ancestors did,
And as fisher-folk do to-day—
Once I laughed at the custom—
And clapped my hands and made reverence
To that point in the sky where God's fingers came through,
Knowing that behind the broken clouds
Was the shining disk of God's face,
That on the morrow I should see it in its glory,
For the Lord of the sky was now the lord of my heart;
I had been touched by God's fingers.





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