Of Piety and Penumbra

Stu McPherson is hosting Poetics over at D'Verse tonight, where he presents a well-written, and very interesting theme for us all to pursue.  This theme is that of Beautiful Sadness, the unexplainable incongruity that sometimes presents itself when experiencing items of inspiration, beauty and pure art, yet, it is here that you are thusly inspired in way you never could have imagined, where emotions, and systems of sadness etc. overtake you in a very surprising manner.

I wasn't really sure how I would personally tackle this theme, as, while being very open to numerous interpretations, I thought it important to truly peel back the layers within and try to find such an instance to draw upon, as I believe everyone experiences this type of sensation many times throughout their lives, and I knew I had done just that, so the real project for me, was connecting to that moment.  I was having difficulty for a while, but then this memory was recalled that I felt fit the theme perfectly.  It was many years ago, when I went to church with my mother, who happened to have been serving as a Eucharistic Minister that mass, and in so doing, she had to arrive a good twenty minutes prior to the start of mass.  So I sat in the pews and would do like I'd done many times before, stare intently upon the magnificent stained glass artistry that were in full display on each of the church walls.  This particular time, instead of simply appreciating the artwork and taking in the scenes depicted there, I was overtaken by a sadness, one that I never truly did understand, yet, it wasn't the type of sadness that keeps you in bed for days on end, it was different and that's the best I can do to explain it here.   Well, that's the backstory, hope you enjoy.

After reading the piece, make sure you head on over to D'Verse, read Stu's excellent article, and then most certainly dive right in to all the pieces linked up to the site by all the amazingly talented poets that often participate in the D'verse poetic community.  And, as always, if the inspiration strikes you, by all means go ahead and compose your own piece, and then link it up to D'verse for all to share in your creation.  Cheers.

listen to ‘Of Piety and Penumbra (part I)’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Of Piety and Penumbra (Part II)’ on Audioboo

The rhythmic patter dictates impetus

as eyes scan each brightly colored

platelet, donated for all to bear witness to its both, as I’ve since learned, piety and penumbra.

Vivid yellows partition scenes shared with

blues, reds and ancient greens, unlocking

sensations within you never knew

To truly understand the compass of depiction,

one must allow every representation to marinate

fully, collecting seasonings oftentimes misunderstood

The tales are those of healing, sacrifice and the purest

illustrations of love, pronounced to and for man.  Its methodical illuminations sparkle from apse to nave, the random

patterning of light’s voyage, in and through, should produce

A genuine sense of thanksgiving—an overwhelming awe steeped though, strongly, in uncontrollable feelings of guilt, for being, when so many others perish before their very appellations, ever truly get the opportunity to tickle the consciousness within

To get lost within such artistry, the mind can perturb the actualized experience—allowing deception to embrace the connotations, in what can only be contrived to be, nothing more than an entirety of observation, permutated by the rationalizing of pristine tenets of belief

Of all the many incarnations that have passed generationally, one would think the devout practitioner would have heard all the allegories, all the various possibilities of understanding, the fantastical meanings and messages—yet, tears stream through me, very much the same

In a way explanation will neither assist nor aide, calming the nerves of those ignorant to the internal processing beneath the eyes, therefore, allotting intuition to show how the spirit has taken hold of your earthbound frame—

Never considering, the salt flows mysteriously, for reasons I could never know—outside of perceiving, that somehow, someway, in shape and/or form, you, in such a realm of spiritual impact, have become the recipient, of what I’ve deemed to be, a conglomeration, of all that is wrong and right.  For what began chaste has grown soured, for what first piqued purity’s interest had also stoked melancholies unwavering flame, and in such moments, you cannot avert your glance from the painted windows masking the outer world askance—while the sermon stirs the air itself, and as the psalms then sing and thus possess the atmospheric verisimilitude—where even in such instances of innate tactility, you, and you alone, are living in a completely different state of being, saddened when elation should take hold your leash, leading you into an uplifting indoctrination of fullness and belief

But instead you remain, solely within the qualms of confine—where the world that enthralled you in, preserves your ignorance—as it creates an antithesis of living dream, an incongruity to replicate a balance amongst ballasts deep

Your tears collect in pools that do not dissolve with immediacy.  The then lost maze of disillusionment has since past, refraining from truly illuminating why in such grace you were presented with such a sad and mourning lapse—

It is here, that you return to the celebration’s living call—and by now being left alone, you understand why these portals of beauty, these windows to inner and outward poetry, could be referred to as ever being stained.