A Revelry of Light & the Living*

A Revelry of Light & the Living

A Poem by Paris Hlad

A Revelry of Light & the Living

-Or Dawn of the Surfer Dudes-

A Recollection of Having Observed

A Convergence of Sunlight

And the Joy of Being

So, God Created Great Sea Creatures 

And Every Living Thing That Moves, 

With Which the Waters Abounded, 

According to Their Kind.

-Genesis 1:22

---

-AUTONOMY-

What soul does not adore the sea,

When in its wont is loosed and free

To seek its measure in the might

Of waves that swell 

In swathes of light!

To swoon within the mind that makes

The green surf moan before it breaks,

With prisms rising from its crest

That sparkle in a sunlit fest

To utter first the morning prayer

Among the birds that gather there -

To move with them along the strand

And leave but footsteps in the sand

-SENTIENCE-

Beyond the surf, soft bearded clouds 

Descended on the tranquil sea-

And violet shafts 

Beamed through 

Their forms,

And then, 

As one, 

They beamed for me

The air grew thick, 

The ocean swelled, 

Then, slid beneath 

A balmy spray

That etched the scene in cursive loops

And swirling skirts that twirl in play

So reckless in its whirling grace �" 

As brash as it was sure and bold!

Like life’s great epic in a flood

Of indigo and gleaming gold

Then, supple flesh rose in the glow 

And dove in limber, sleek descent 

Into the ocean’s teeming depths 

And my profound astonishment

Each noble snout seemed like a lance,

Ascending through a spangled mist

That crowns a place within the void 

That heaven’s thrust could not resist

-AFFIRMATION-

Then, knelt I on that morning’s dune 

And cried to God who rose on high

To let this blessing be the one 

I keep until my time to die

Then, free to seek my time and place

Within Creation’s gleaming ring,

I flew into the rising tide,

And sensed a queer 

But holy thing:

What blessings come

With careless joy!

What good things 

Beg as one to be,

But in the open hearts of men

Who worship at the ancient sea!

-VENERATION-

Each dolphin seemed 

To swoon in play,

Abandoned 

In a revelry

That moved the man 

Whose naked soul

Had joined them

In their comity

I swam with them, 

And they, with me

We pleasured freely in the whim 

That teased the laughter

In the light

That caused our hearts 

In joy to swim.

-RESOLUTION-

No better deed was ever done

In sudden grace, its flag unfurled,

Then was that holy burst of light

That ushered life into the world

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Hail, Holy Light, 

Offspring of Heav’n First-Born,

Or of the Eternal Coeternal Beam

May I Express Thee Unblamed? 

   Since God is Light …

-JOHN MILTON

Paradise Lost