where careless gods rule

This world can be mercy,
a soft rehearsal for eternity,
where even suffering has meaning
and the dark bends toward dawn.

Life can be
the closest one comes to fire.

Other times,
it is the feast before the famine,
the glittering illusion
before the fall.

Ease can feel
like the nearest taste of heaven.

Here on earth,
where careless gods rule,
the wealthy,
the privileged,
tongues of promise,
hands too clean
to touch the poor.

They climb a glass mountain
and rise in a hollow glide
inside a silent lift.

They toss the world like dice
and souls like stones,
skimming across shadowed waters,
believing even gravity
bows to their will.

Their power is absolute silence
with the wind too thin to carry protest.

Their future
measures itself
against the weightlessness of their past,
not a long journey through fire
but a single, sudden
terrible drop.

Yet even where careless gods rule
their dominion ends
where the sun burns out
and where the moon’s cold face turns away.

Beyond all light and shadow
reigns the Name no mouth can master,

whose mercy mends
what men have broken
and whose voice stills the wind
and gathers the scattered home.

Author's Note

I wrote this poem as a reflection on the Name YHWH. Throughout history, it has been regarded as too sacred to pronounce aloud, and reverence for it has shaped the ways it is spoken and written.

Reviews

[Jansy]

Amen. RomaJ. This is a very deep and profound reflection. I have to come back to this, to write something as profound to reflect the poem. I just haven't had enough coffee or sleep to write something proper but felt I had to write something. It's beautiful and very evocative.

[RomaJ]

Thank you Jansy. I appreciate you reading and taking time to leave a review.. I appreciate your kind words. Enjoy that coffee.

[carl]

the accolades you have received for this work are all spot- on I can only say that it is a thrilling soul, stirring, and masterful piece of writing - I am so glad I encountered it on first arising this morning - enjoyed it immensely -carl