Blithe Fingers Know the Psalms of Adoration

Music: Piano Sonata in C (K.545), 1st Movement. By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Sequenced by Lory Werths.

Enter your search terms Submit search form Web www.poemsforfree.com

Alpha List Hanukkah Poems Name Poems Philosophical Poems Sestinas Contents Home Copyright by Nicholas Gordon

Blithe fingers know the psalms of adoration; Often they play them on the flesh of light. No hearing necessary, nor is sight Needed to draw the lineaments of pleasure. In despair only is there desecration: Evil in pursuit of pain, not pleasure. So may we not regret our loss of sight: Eight days God gave the miracle of light. Touch remains the road to adoration, However much we miss the gift of light. Grace is a slate-flat sea, a tranquil sight After dense hills and fine-wrought pleasure: Bleak and pure, too spare for desecration; Rich as a thin dark line drawn with pleasure; Intense as death, too immense for sight-- Even now, as love replaces light, Loss of faith, not loss of adoration . . .  Mysteries are not revealed by light: Open to the darkness, not by sight May they be known, but by love. And pain. And pleasure. Each tide leaves on our shores its desecration: Limp latex gloves, syringes, sheathes of pleasure. Love cannot feel through knowing, nor does sight Equal touch for singing, nor does light Need burn eight days to kindle adoration.