The smoky silhouetting trees lining the hill, the blue setting horizon
The golden sunlight suffusing the stray white clouds
Tiny moving black spots far away for flying birds
The wintry evening outside the office window
lost quickly to the night away from my eyes.
Grandeur plainly in sight, right by the eye-side.
This past summer in Ulm, Germany,
that grandeur crept up on me one day
while I was not looking
Ulmer Muenster,
your first glimpse
in a little game of hide-n-seek
between buildings ...
Eventually I saw you rise up to the sky,
taking people inside you,
offering them space and light to
offer what they have or wish to offer
Offering them your rock soul and some solace
in the dim damp light of candles, old used-smooth wooden chairs
to sit on. The robed men offering you naked words and music
that you in infinite rock wisdom clothed in grace and blessing.
Pray tell wherefore came Fear inside me for a second ?
The idea of transcendence is binary. Awe has degrees.
The poet had felt fear upon choosing transcendence.
Practically speaking then, even an hour with angels is a lot.
(Even in grief.) Thus people take to working on things,
staging this and that. Thus the vehicles of society
work even inside you.
And the heart-warming part in all of this that day -
Mischeif. The urge to scribble wherever,
leave our imprints, our i-love-you's
Even on your rock-awesome body,
strong, staid and beautiful
which took me inside deep
and I felt joy and elevated
as I rose inside you towards the sky
and saw the scribbles everywhere
on your rock grandeur,
that has gained something more
from the sweat and faith of all the good men.
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23 June' 13 was the visit
