Canticle of the Midnight Imprecation
IV
If thou go out to war against thy enemies, and see horsemen and chariots,
And the numbers of the enemy’s army greater than thine, thou shalt not fear them:
Because the Lord thy God is with thee, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt.
Night has descended on what is remaining of Israel, where now
Fires in daytime cooled as a billowing cloud; all has been dead
Night for a time, though over the darkness a rolling of thunder
Settled for hours, and soon a response, as a voice on the wind said:
There by the rivers of Babylon, over the stones of the shoreline
Where we reposed, all our hearts grew troubled; behold, all the men wept
Painfully, when we remembered the holiest mountains of Zion;
That is the place by the river we hung each harp, to be then kept
High in the branches of willows along the respective embankment,
When the marauders requested us a song, those whom we are captive,
After they plundered our treasures, espoused a desire for gladness,
Sing us a chorus of Zion! – and still we remained as inactive,
Lacking in spirit to sing of the Lord and His melodies, since we
Come to a most unfamiliar land, as disheartened as ever;
Yea, O Jerusalem, should it be this man fails to remember,
This hand shall thus fail to remember its cunning, forever;
Shall it be this man never repeats thy name to the people,
Then it is fitting his tongue be affixed in his mouth, for no measure
Should be sufficient if this man comes to exalt, to his peril,
One thing over Jerusalem, over his favorite pleasure;
Lord God, King of the Heavens, remember against all the sons of
Edom, on them that day of Jerusalem rests, as the nation
That spoke these words, ‘Burn it all, raze it, Jerusalem falls this
Day, no stone to remain in its place, nor its very foundation,’
Thus to the Virgin of Babylon, come to the feast of the vanquished,
Blessed is one that comes to despoil in similar fashion,
Blessed is one that comes and seizes the sucklings and babes of
Babylon, only to dash them here on the stones in his passion,
Carried by winds in mysterious bends, and arranged in unseemly
Ways, as it brought to the edge of the river of peaceful arrest things
That, on its own, seem vengeful, although for the dread of the night these
Could be so much worse, given the vulnerable state of the resting
Man by himself, by the water, and shaking in chilled commendations:
Sack-cloth cover, exposing his flesh to the frightful conditions
Israel’s evening provides, for the winds are the vehicles both for
Cold and for songs of lamenting, in some ways bringing suspicions
From the afar, though this is a personal parcel, and bears no
Weight on the winds, on its wings are the twin plagues: families cursed to
Toil, and thieving of heat; soon, after a while, it grew too
Much, and the cold superseded the songs in uncertainty, worse through
Waters so frightfully chilled by the zephyrs, and finally roused me
From rest, knowing the loss of a night is superior, given
This man would be alive to lament it tomorrow, and thus I
Gathered the sack-cloth, girded the tunic, and returned to be driven
Further away from Zion, the mountains in praises aloft in
Those winds, shortly becoming as distant as those in the song, as
Those in the wind, the mysterious chant, a refrain in perfection,
Stuttered and twisted the greater the distance between us, gone past
Clarity over the course of the journey, the path to the Jordan
Now bent toward the mountains instead of the river, so frigid
Cold would also depart, though truly the horrors of cold will
Leave with the river if only as much as remains in the rigid
Goads of the breezes so sharp and so wicked, to rapt on my flesh to
Harshly procure warmth, worsened by watery vapor day stirred
From sleep through sunlight, all conferring in powerful forces
Means of directing a lost man born dead further in wayward
Routes, the unfolding predicament staged misdirection to where I
Failed to recall, so remembering where by the Kidron or carried
Over the mountains of Judah is some path toward the Jordan
Comes to futility, that of a wasted dimension; the buried
Raised in Jerusalem lifted himself out of She’ol, and walked from
Zion without recollection; perhaps he forgot to remember,
Bringing his body and leaving his memory deep in Gehenna,
Where it remains underneath all the dust and debris, as an ember
Burning in sand as a metaphor, bringing to question: if this man
Rose from death as a shell, as if born twice, then in his grave he
Left there pieces he needed in death, and in life he returned it
Back to the grave, as he needed it not, or at least as it gave me
Life in the grave, it no longer had value, where in my grave
This was a shell, the placenta, entwined with the memories trapped or
Lost; so the question becomes: when this man stirred in his grave, then
Crawled out of Hell, what things did he leave in the grave, with his captor;
What did the Pit take, what was its due, and for what in my body
Does it account for, the things it possesses in flesh and in soul, some
Things intertwined in identity, others in memory, still some
Bonded to what it intended to save for the dance on a loathsome
Stage, a theater of rot, by the man born dead, as he came to
From his decay in macabre sleep, though for the purpose expounded
Previous, this is indicative thus of a break in Creation:
She’ol regurgitates dead men out of its mouth, and resounded
Here and in time for eternity, that of the greatest defeat: a
Turning around of destruction, “uncreation” of every standard
Bound by the law of Creation, a heritage broken to pieces
Shewn in a greater respect by the Lord, for His product is slandered
Stiffly by others He made, the inheritors pompous and foul
Keeping a hand on the world and another on Ego, anointed
Over the world they never created, the mockery shared by
Mighty and proud men, whom He rebukes as He grows disappointed
Even remorseful of this strange creature He gave in His image,
Weak in its soul and so stiff of its neck; it is ever the eternal
Curse to be humbled before God, having a Maker and then His
Hands to be lifted, for God to announce He intends an infernal
End for the work of His hands, the rejection by God the tremendous
Sorrow of She’ol, the worst of it being His ultimate, true claim
That He resigns of the task to remediate men, for if God does,
There is no hope for the man, and as such, to deflect the undue blame
Toward the Lord is a false stance, that the departed reject since
They are rejected, the sorry receiver his own consequential
Choices bereave most, those He affects in reversing the order
Given to order, the “shall” He bestowed to the “shall”, providential
Penalties parsed by the proud for iniquity, shallow erasure
Blowing away the success of the soil, the mountain of dirt men
Build in the hours of life he had stolen; the hours He gave to
Man are reduced to a pile of dirt He so quickly inverts, then
Calls to account all the wasted potential in men, the unused things
Given and never accepted, or leveraged toward a fruitless
Life so unlived, to deliver to death his expectant receipt of
Body and spirit, for there is no recourse for man, he is toothless
Standing before God, such as existence is merely the gift of
Being admitted the chance to behold all the glory and beauty
Torn from strips out of nothing of nothing, ex nihilo, sheets God
Formed by Himself in His wisdom, although He had given the duty
Over possession to man, and we squandered it more in our sinful
Earthly proclivities than He expects of the highest of beasts, He
Giving us wills to decide and to share in the glory of choosing,
Lacking divine sight though not a thing more, barring the priestly
Claim of a holiness warranted through a commitment to stringent
Living of law for a hope in redemption, subduing corruption
Shrewdly in day and in night; but the Sadducee proves it all wrong, so
Wrong, for the hope of redeeming the City of David’s destruction
Failed to ordain in the soul of a people unfettered a change, for
Loss of the spirit in princes and priests is surrender regardless
What dwells deep in the soul of a nation, and keeping the law as
Israel matters as much as rejecting its kings of a heartless
Countenance, ending the reign of corrupt lords, though for the nation
Now, abdication is nothing, it comes as too little too late, see
Fires and ruin and say, We require a king with a holy
Nature, is farcical, like an insight and a parody, greatly
Mirroring what is occurring in Israel though in a clearer
Way, for the fall of Jerusalem came in the night in a year long
Past, dispensation for Israel’s greatest iniquities, that of
Playing the harlot and casting of idols, for ears do not hear songs
Israel sang for an idol; and eyes do not witness the crowds of devoted
Coming to gather; and such as is written by prophets beyond my
Cunning, the idols of nations are dead, and as such are as dead as
Ministers worshiping them; so to muster a will to respond, I
Listened to that lost Sadducee prattle about sacrificial
Needs for the Lord, and to what is appropriate: woe, condemnation,
Hatred, revulsion, or even remorse, but instead in my mind I
Laughed, for the death of a man has restored in him spirit, vexation
Caused by revival upon the destruction of Zion, and such a
Curious mind for the fate of the nation by hands of her remnant,
Purpose begotten by death and restored in a life of despondent
Ashes, so walking horizon-enraptured, eschewing resentment:
This man born dead lives! and all praises to God in the highest
Heaven for providence, that of undoing undoing, the features
Death is ascribed in its certainty, made as uncertain, as weaker
Than the divine, the deserved end taken away for the creatures
Under the Heavens, for spirits rejoice in creation and gnash their
Teeth in reversing the process, supposing a clear observation,
Fullness of being revoked, and a darkness subsuming the thing, as
Darkness has swallowed the land, irrevocable over the nation,
Lest the ascension of light in the sky come bearing the banner
Under the Heavens as standard, and still the return of the shadow
Over the nation is more than absence of light, it is absence
Caused by the Lord in departing the land, and replaced by a plateau
Formed in the land of our ancestors, formed by Chaldeans, Egyptians,
Moab and Ammon, and the tribes of the desert, a nation beleaguered
Through its surrender, apostasy, hardness of heart, as a laying
Forth to regurgitate people in droves to the mouth of an eager
Grave, to have trusted in chariots, horses, and bronze as opposed to
That great Hand in the desert, the cloud of the ancients, Almighty
God; and as such this man born dead as he walks in the truly
Desolate times and in desolate places, his path is aright, he
Follows a righteous intention, the trails of his faithful ambition,
Love for the Lord in his walking revival, his body of blushing
Ardor, a trust in God in sincere admiration and giving
Thanks; for as people remain unrepentant, the person is gushing
Full of His mercy, the king in his failure has failed in attempting
Judah’s damnation, for God is forgiving, although He is just, He
Levies His judgment in full and without doubt, such as deserved and
Never in interest toward fulfilling consent, for He must be
Justice or justice is false and a terror to living, and truly
These understood, these people arrive in stranger conclusions
Damning the nation of Israel, then the forgiveness of this one
Man is a proof in itself, as abiding as drops of illusions
Coming in waves of the heavenly host to repudiate softly,
Wholly, decisively; thus as the man born dead is a living
Miracle, that in his mind’s continuity carries its whole weight
Marked in eternal remembrance, embracing the Lord in His giving
Twice of a life in especially curious terms, for as strongly
This man feels of his birth in the soil, mysterious staging
Stewards the reckless abandon the revenant reckons within this
Coming of beckoning ages to smolder horizons, engaging
Through an auspicious relief in his personal miracle granting
Life to the dead, for as once we are dead, we regain it again should
God in His perfect acknowledgement raise dead men; for the Lord is
Sovereign over the process of death, and He then could
Topple the structure to suit His strategic requirements, that of
Greater fulfillment through resurrection, if later the man who
God had returned to his body had served a purported
End, to redeem in himself as a matter of will all he can do
Forth-with through his addendum, resurgence in body and spirit
Not to be wasted repeating the sins of his earlier birth, he
Truly repents and delivers to God as demanded, as needed,
Though as a manner of speaking, for God has endowed all the earthly
Things with the natures befitting respectively every one of
Them, so He never requires a thing of our own; for sincerely
Praises are given, as quickly the praises becomes a renouncement,
Thus this man born dead can refrain from saddling clearly
Poor, ill-befitting additions to God’s great glory if most of
Them are as soiled and dregs-drenched rags; in the morning of hopeful
Darkness to crawl in the night to the loving embrace of a youthful
Day, to behold with the eyes the magnificent splendors of opal
Dawns in the east, in a palette colored as opals of Cush, a
Stunted cerulean covering partly revealed in its furtive
Shame all the brilliant crimson displayed as its marks of authentic
Morning, explosive refrain as a scorched sun, reigning assertive
Under the white snow stretching across all its breadth, iridescent
Figures arranged in reposed streaks deigned as the wonder adorning
God’s great heavens, His heavenly foot-stool under the host of
Stars, uninvolved in the process of carrying pieces of morning
From storehouses in God’s court, coming to Zion as gifts of
Beauty, perfected in magnified fragments of inner, intrinsic
Spirits inscribed with the same things, yearning for goodness and glory,
Partly the reason we also in vain hope that cataclysmic
Days are ahead, that man might witness the fullness of righteous
Graces in Heaven, before God, that His enrapturing portrait
Lead us to gazing upon what man in his error has sought since
Eden, ambivalent toward the creatures who seek it and force it
Through a betrayal of goodness to vanish in vapor and firstfruits;
Death and decay are the patrons of theft, and the last of possessors
Holding a thing thieved, that inasmuch one instant observed has
Held fast, thus in the coming of sunrise, where the successors
Through the arrival of morning reclaim what men in the grave left
Here on the earth, and the man born dead is among the procession,
Though he is clothed in his sackcloth, not of his avarice, only
Seeking the glory of morning, of God, to behold his possession,
Life, as the inching of day creeps softly, familiar crimson
Steadfast over the circle of earth, he prepares for the curtain
Keeping the night to be lifted and there, in an hour or longer,
Will I discover the dream, for I dream as the morning is certain.
awakening after a restless journey • faraway battles
hearing the Psalm of imprecation • fleeing in darkness
repentance • the beauty of mornings to come