Malcolm Guite (w/ Herbert)

Prayer (by Herbert)

PRAYER the church's banquet, angel's age,

God's breath in man returning to his birth,

The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,

The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth

Engine against th' Almighty, sinner's tow'r,

Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,

The six-days world transposing in an hour,

A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear;

Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,

Exalted manna, gladness of the best,

Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,

The milkie way, the bird of Paradise,

Church-bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood,

The land of spices; something understood.

Heaven In Ordinary

Because high heaven made itself so low

That I might glimpse it through a stable door,

Or hear it bless me through a hammer blow,

And call me through the voices of the poor,

Unbidden now, its hidden light breaks through

Amidst the clutter of the every day,

Illuminating things I thought I knew,

Whose dark glass brightens, even as I pray.

Then this world’s walls no longer stay my eyes,

A veil is lifted likewise from my heart,

The moment holds me in its strange surprise,

The gates of paradise are drawn apart,

I see his tree, with blossom on its bough,

And nothing can be ordinary now.

Man Well Dressed

That old voice from the past: I was afraid,

For I was naked; and I hid myself.

And somehow I’m still there, lost in that glade,

Feeling exposed, ashamed, and, in my stealth

Still holding the fell fruit. He finds me as

My withered fig leaves fall away, and still

He clothes me, for the way of heaven is

Always to give and give to those who steal.

But now the skin I’m clothed in is his own,

He makes himself a garment for us all,

At once the bridegroom and the wedding gown.

I step forth from the thicket of my fall

Already dressed in every gift he gave,

Gathered and girdled in his circling love.