"I behold the great distance in creation's heart"
Rabindranath Tagore
The lake has studied the many faces of the sky:
ghostly white islands far from its reach;
a blue bath to dream in;
slow-moving steel clouds holding back heaven;
reborn clouds: calligraphy unreadable from earth.
It knows God better than I ever did.
Shredded light at peace and floating on its pupil.
All the hope of heaven in one drop of the earth's
mists and fury . . .
I can believe it now:
one death between me and finally knowing,
one death and one
body and one slender line between it all,
when nothing can touch the quiet chapel of our past;
only the past is safe.
You see it, don't you, sleepless dreamer?
The fathoms Time and only Time can swim?
Your view is better and I'll watch it with
you and perhaps we'll catch a glimpse of
the answers out there.
Red eye of heaven, flames on the water.
The aging face: the most beautiful of all.
Patricia Joan Jones
This poem received the Excellence Award
at Flowing Quills forum and the
Moon-kissed Myth Award at Galadrial's Respite.
Nominated for the Net Poetry and Arts Competition.