The Poppet Doll (Part Three of Three)*

PART III

 

(The Blessing of St. Paul)

 

And now, I am

A beast no more

And now, I see a soul

 

That gathers

What is disparate

Into a sacred whole

 

I see it on the roads I walk,

The places where I stay -

 

It hallows like the goodly light

In which the angels pray

 

For penitence

Inspires the flight

Of that supernal grace

 

That elevates

The common man

Above his time and place!

 

It flutters like a temple dove

That in the sunlight

 

Gleams

 

Upon the brow

Of him who kneels

And, in his beauty, beams!

 

These days were meant

To claim a soul beneath

 

An olive tree,

 

And I discovered

 

That the Christ

 

Was surely claiming me

 

Oh, I was chastened in a flame,

A flame that made it seem

 

As if I were a child of God

 

And not a poppet’s dream.[1]

 

-U-

 

Herein Lay My Sin,

 

That I Sought Pleasures, Honors, and Truths,

 Not in Him, but in His Creatures �" And I Fell

Thereby into Sorrows, Troubles, and Errors.

 

-St. Augustine of Hippo[2]

 

Thoughts of Camille Du Monde: Entry Eleven

 

(Those Who Seek Forgiveness Must Repent)

 

For many years, our Church regarded the passion of the flagellant to be a reasonable display of penance, for though the whipping might be a vain conceit too madly done, a lesson was, in fact, laid out and learned by many.[3]  Now, times have changed. But Ami describes a thing more inward and quite private, too much like our Lord’s anguish on the night of his betrayal, which to me is a kind of sacrilege that mimics God. But who can say? Yet this I know or trust to be the truth:

 

All confessions made and penance done

Are acts performed in garish masquerade.

 

No man can be complete in what he knows about himself,

Nor can the truth find light in anything he says.

 

He is like a troubadour who sings

His empty platitudes to a sleepy king

Who excuses him in a drone of snores.[4]

 

Yet those who seek forgiveness must repent.

 

For even as God yawns at our imperfect prayers,

His grace provides a consummate absolution �"

Never rendered grudgingly or in half-spirit,

But in full measure and often in reward.

 

Did Jean Ami receive that special blessing?

It seems he did, and I am happy for him,

For in witnessing grace, I am as blessed

As him for whom it was intended.

 

God’s love is like an arrow that finds its mark �"

 

It sticks where it is intended,

 

But so great is its force

That it is felt in every place nearby

And perhaps far beyond what can be seen.

 

What soldier shows not a better sign of courage,

When he beholds that virtue shining in another?

 

Or more generally, what good man can witness grace

And not feel compelled to do some good himself?[5]

Reviews

[carl]

very difficult for me to comment on your work other than to say it is beautiful. It seems you have a gift for words and flow to your work that is uncommonly good. Some of the things of which you speak I can relate to, others are beyond my scope of knowledge, but from all I get a great pleasure. Glad I came across your work and I will frequent again. - carl

[Paris Hlad]

Thanks, Carl - You're Aces. I'll look at your stuff, too.
Peace & Best Wushes.