Torn From Unknowing
Glosa, quoting from Denise Levertov
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To live in the mercy of God.
To feel vibrate the enraptured
waterfall flinging itself
unabating down and down
—Denise Levertov, To Live in the Mercy of God1
Nothing remains to be seen for long beneath the green of brackish water, out of sight like softly chanted words at night, faded afterimages of doubt and false memory. I’d play out a line, if I could find their nook— feel the tug and set the hook, be dragged from shore by the rod to live in the mercy of God. What mercy it would be, to know the death of living in the flow of perception, pulled beneath the green into a deeper myth than inwit could envision. There’s a flow whose provision does not depend on all that’s borne into it, through it, by it, torn from unknowing by a word to feel vibrate the enraptured language of a current wound like ecstatic seaweed round tomorrow’s ancient pilings, billowing by and filing out to sea with me a captive glad, and free. So bound I’d outlive the broken possibilities my former stagnancy decreed. Shore-stranded I’m an unhealthy waterfall flinging itself over, over, over again from the same old cliff, a zen cacophonous that never rests under a greater aegis, possessed. The choice is mine—let go the rod and forego catching hold of God, or keep my grip to be drawn beneath the waves to find where dawn lives. Will I drown as I go down, unabating down and down?
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1
Levertov’s full poem can be found here at the Poetry Foundation.
Mark, this image of God moves me. God as a powerful ocean current pulling one deeper into mercy and mystery. You show the beauty of our free will. We choose--whether or not to hold on to the rod. I often begin my contemplative prayer practice with a few lines of poetry to quiet the chatter of the mind and elevate the moment. The rhymes and the rhythm of this poem would be so good for that. You've taken Levertov's poem in a very worthy direction. Thank you!
There’s a kind of rolling to the couplets here, Mark, that I found fitting, given the setting and metaphors used. A great expansion of the quote, too. Nice work.