Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Another Poem: My Muse Has Left Me Desolate


My Muse Has Left Me Desolate

“… and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.” – Galatians 3:19

My Muse has left me desolate this year.
October, not a single word from her.
My brush will hold no paint, my pen won’t stir,
And I sit trapped in uninspired fear.

Some friend will murmur to me (as a curse):
“No guide but Christ, and no Muse but the Church!”
But God through intermediaries works,
And all who say such things write rotten verse.

When God passed down His holy Law it came
Ordained by angels and through Moses’ hands.
Return, my Muse!  Release me from these bands,
And mediate God’s poems to me the same.

Come home, my holy angel, heed my call.
Return to me, thou “Moses” of my verse.
All other Muses make my writing worse.
I need your kindly succor, lest I fall.

Perhaps some other poet has you now,
And some more agile painter hears your voice.
Abandon them!  Come, make my heart rejoice:
Renew with me our old, truehearted vow.

And then shall heart, hand, pen feel no restraint.
Once more I’ll gladly follow; you shall lead.
The finger-graven tablets you shall read,
And I shall sing and write and dance and paint.

© 2013. Paul Erlandson

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