POEMS FOR OCCASIONS

PRAISE

In the eye of the elephant, in the eye of the mouse, in the dark and the bright,in the moon and sun, in the neutrino’s flight, in the electron’s spin,in the universe expanding out or folding in, in yang and yin, in miniature,in magnitude, in melancholy, in gratitude, in silence and in bliss,in the Golden Mean of the nautilus, in the Boolean laptop, in tongues untiedin the barbaric yawp—love abides.

In summer heat and winter hail,in the amoeba, in the great blue whale, on the mountain crest, in the valleyswale, in taut muscle, in crumbling bone, in thunderheads, in river stone—love abides. In Galileo and Gogol, in St. Augustine and Sartre,in the magical mind, in the miracle heart, halfway through morning,in midafternoon, in the quark, in the quasar, in the rush, in the swoon,in the spark—love abides.

In the spiraling arms of the Milky Way,in Andromeda, in night and day, in the owl and the bear, in fur and feather,in prayer—love abides. In the dance, love abides. In the dance, in the dance,in the coming and going, in the blue shift and red, in light and gravity,in the living and the dead, in the madeleine of memory, in the house of pain,in joy, in suffering—love abides.

On the sloop in the sound, on the rafton the river, in the dance, in headwinds, in yaw, in the following sea, in brioand humility, in surrendering. In the carmine evening, in the chartreusedawn, in the desert, in the dingle, in the robin’s song, in the humid streetsof Brooklyn, on bicycles, in bare feet, on BlackBerrys, in taxis, in the bitter-sweet—love abides. In Limerick and Lotus, in Sally’s soothsaying dream,in turquoise heels, on the walk on the trail, in the wedding dress, in the drycastanets of the rattlesnake’s tail, in thistle and vetch—love abides.

In the breath of the earth, in the wind, in the rising and falling and risingagain, in the gathering, in family and friends, in the wild tribe whoopingbeneath the wild tree—love abides. In the earth’s dervish around the sun,where you are now in time undone, in the golden string, in the comingand going of everything, in the oak’s craggy limbs, in the blue bowlof sky, in the boundless river, in your luminous eyes, in your being,in the dance, in your kiss—love abides.


Written as a wedding poem. Incomparable. By Moira Magneson

A west coast poet, Magneson's "Praise" threw me for a loop when I first read it. There is so much imagery in the poem, when you finish, you're a little bit drunk on it. I tried a couple of times to write a poem for some celebration, some milestone...without success. Obviously, she didn't have that problem. ENJOY!