February 21, 2008

Echoes of Heaven: Magic

"It never comes when you look for it,
But only on its own terms,
On its own time,
In its own way.
To seek it is to lose it.

"It's silent, then sudden,
Like a stab in the dark
From a friendly fiend
Trying to make us remember what we forgot.
To lose it is to seek it.

"You hate it when it comes to you:
Its pains are too deep, too heavy, too eternal.
You hate it when it goes from you:
Its pleasures are too sweet, too joyous, too eternal.
May they ever end and never stop.

"Oh to place the pool that runs these rivers!
Oh to find the fountain that sends these streams!
Will I ever find that exalted ocean,
Of priceless pearls and unglittering gold,
And drown forever beneath its waves?"

-Jon Vowell (c) 2008

1 comment:

firebirdsinger said...

The reason I always, without fail, cry at the scene in ROTK when Gandalf and Pippin are talking about Valinor is because, to me, it is an expression of heaven. The idea of all turning to silver glass, and there being a far white country with the sound of singing coming over the water is so surpassingly beautiful that it captures my heart instantly. I'm constantly amazed that I'm struck so...completely by something that is a mere imitation of heaven. It does seem a little cruel for God to have made humans with such an insatiable desire for heaven, but I know that it was probably made so that in the search for bliss, we should find Him. Your poem reflects that perfectly.