{"id":8942,"date":"2015-11-06T01:00:49","date_gmt":"2015-11-06T08:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/?p=8942"},"modified":"2016-05-12T13:28:55","modified_gmt":"2016-05-12T20:28:55","slug":"poetry-friday-canticle-of-want-by-marjorie-stelmach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/goodletters\/2015\/11\/poetry-friday-canticle-of-want-by-marjorie-stelmach\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetry Friday: “Canticle of Want” by Marjorie Stelmach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"hawk\"<\/a>Each Friday at Good Letters<\/a> we feature a poem from the pages of Image<\/em><\/a>, selected and introduced by one of our writers or readers.<\/p>\n

I like a poem to surprise me, and Marjorie Stelmach\u2019s \u201cCanticle of Want<\/a>\u201d (<\/em>Image\u00a0issue 86<\/a>)\u00a0 is full of the unexpected. Recently I\u2019ve been praying St. Francis\u2019s famous \u201cCanticle\u201d: \u201cAll praise be yours, My Lord, through all that you have made.\u201d But Stelmach\u2019s initial address to the Lord is far from praise; it lists images of a nature that\u2019s worn down, stunted, in ruin. Then later there\u2019s this shock: \u201cNo one doubts who owns the heavens: \/\/ American drones\u2026\u201d The overall longing of the poem\u2014its \u201cwant\u201d\u2014is for a Lord whose \u201cgood intentions\u201d we can believe in, a Lord we can feel in tune with. But the closing lines suggest that our mortality separates us permanently from the \u201cLord, whose name is Everlasting.\u201d There\u2019s more, too, in the poem that keeps pulling me into it: the base iambic pentameter beat over which alliteration intones, while the \u201cwant\u201d (as both verb and noun) pulses its yearning.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014Peggy Rosenthal<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cCanticle of Want\u201d by\u00a0Marjorie Stelmach<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Lord of worn stone cliffs and the guileless trill
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em> of the canyon wren; Lord of stunted hemlocks,<\/p>\n

imperiled mussels, seeds that fall on shallow soil;
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em> Lord of boreal forests, of the fragile<\/p>\n

nitrogen cycle, of vanishing aquifers, spreading
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em> deserts; Lord of neglect and carelessness,<\/p>\n

of greed and depletion, of the doleful cry
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em> of the violin, of the loon; Lord of ruin<\/p>\n

and desperate rescue, of remnant, ragtag,
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em> making do, you too must want as fiercely<\/p>\n

as we do, your world being almost nothing
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em> but want.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here, twilight breezes traverse the furrows
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em> to bury all manner of wanton seeds among<\/p>\n

our crops; a red-shouldered hawk wheels and
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em> watches; its shadow wheels and is watched;<\/p>\n

a harvest moon, drastically magnified, rises\u2014
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em> a deception no science has yet explained,<\/p>\n

so much here remains beyond us. For ages,
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em> our kind has studied this earth; we have yet<\/p>\n

to discern your purpose. How badly we want
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em> to believe in your good intentions.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For centuries, monks copied scripture in inks
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em> concocted from hawthorn, salts, and wine.<\/p>\n

They lived in vigilance, hidden away, recording
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em> your hints and evasions; they died<\/p>\n

of their times and a heritable briefness. Today,
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em> no one doubts who owns the heavens:<\/p>\n

American drones cross invisibly over
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em> invisible borders; refugees trudge toward<\/p>\n

rumors of air drops. Wide-eyed in the dark hours,
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em> we children of plenty labor over our lives,<\/p>\n

documenting our days in a light we have found
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em> no way to erase. We want so much not to be<\/p>\n

lost sight of. Want, equally, to escape all notice.
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em> Soon every moonrise will be our last. Lord,<\/p>\n

whose name is Everlasting, how can you begin
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em> to understand?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"GL<\/a><\/p>\n

Marjorie Stelmach<\/strong>\u2019s fourth volume of poems is Without Angels<\/em> (Mayapple). Previous volumes include A History of Disappearance<\/em> and Bent upon Light<\/em> (both from Tampa). Recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Boulevard, Cincinnati Review, Gettysburg Review,<\/em> and Prairie Schooner<\/em>. She lives in Saint Louis.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each Friday at Good Letters we feature a poem from the pages of Image, selected and introduced by one of our writers or readers. I like a poem to surprise me, and Marjorie Stelmach\u2019s \u201cCanticle of Want\u201d (Image\u00a0issue 86)\u00a0 is full of the unexpected. Recently I\u2019ve been praying St. Francis\u2019s famous \u201cCanticle\u201d: \u201cAll praise be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1050,"featured_media":8943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,49],"tags":[1947,1946,3572,1948,122,1945],"class_list":["post-8942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-peggy-rosenthal","category-writing-topical-categories","tag-canticle-of-want","tag-marjorie-stelmach","tag-peggy-rosenthal","tag-poem","tag-poetry","tag-poetry-friday"],"yoast_head":"\nPoetry Friday: "Canticle of Want" by Marjorie Stelmach<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Each Friday at Good Letters we feature a poem from the pages of Image, selected and introduced by one of our writers or readers. 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