To Religious Poets

Anglican Theological Review, Fall 2006 by Halferty, Bryan

We are a fractured group,

relics, stained glass-

dyed by bird feathers

and bygone rainbows.

We have been broken up-

true, taken apart.

We are not poets, but religious

poets. A specific brand:

circumcision.

But be satisfied,

for if we forget to love

this mystery that has been whistling

in midnight before

the first word

was spoken, then

what magic is there

after worlds crack

open, crumbling

like ancient castles?

What will we say

to the fiend while it reaches

toward our minds,

pulling itsell forward,

gripping on to a backbone,

a rib, shoulder?

Let's not write

what we ought,

but of sojourns through parted

water towards a garden,

its lapis river anointing

laud. Write of the birds there

which never stop singing,

pray the world

hear their early song.

BRYAN HALFERTY*

* Bryan Halferty lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he is studying at Regent College.