Monday, April 26, 2010

A Personal, Ecclesiastic, Postmodern Psalm


I was going through an old journal today from my second year here at CSULB, and among the daily-update sorts of entries I stumbled upon a rather interesting poem that I wrote. I thought I'd share it :)

A few notes on the poem. First of all, I wrote it in December 2007, but revised it a tad today. I changed the break between lines three and four and substituted "But" for "For" in line 17...it changes the meaning of the line significantly I think.

Also, I'm 99% certain that I was reading a LOT of T.S. Eliot when I wrote this-the poem almost reeks of his influence haha. I feel that it's a response in the same manner as Jon Foreman's response to T.S. Eliot in "Meant to Live," which is why I included a line from the song. So without further ado:


A Cautious Optimism

We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?

Where to turn?
Where to look
When nothing new sits 'neath the sun?
Where to run? Where to head?
There is no way around or through
That has not been explored, rejected.

The past is fled,
The present bleak.
The future holds no certain promise.

Amid the ruins
Beneath the towers
Lofty, dreary
We spin in circles, round and round.

Will I hear the whimper when it all ends, bang-less?
The end is near. The end is near.
But now, I choose instead of death
Life. instead of fear
Hope.