I Saw Jack in the Pulpit

jaronchilds

I saw jack-in-the-pulpit and I knew I belonged
And I felt every sermon and I held every song
O The trees creaked and shifted as they turned and dropped their leaves
And I pulled an empty bottle and I held it to the breeze.

Oh this one life no longer was the first thought in my mind
The delight which had shined in me was like a thing baptized
Yes mid-Sunday morning a bold blue-jay sat
On a tumble-down maple listening back
And she kicked to the air and showed me a bit
Of what hearts lack for living in this rich swelling gift
Flies were spinning and scribbling with unburdened heads
Their lives were a church and a poem for the dead
Well I looked down a foxhole and God shown within
In a red fur-trimmed mask and I saw where I’d been was a palace of kin.

Let me be tamed by blood-sucking flyhorses
In your hidden structures infinity courses
that these long hands spun dust to shine some star’s light
and went whistling through holes in unending night
Yes I thought I saw true light, aback a sun which brimmed
to teach all men with wind-tangled trees and swayed limbs
Oh the birch logs laid pale at rest in this briary forest
Composed from the living deaths that endlessly forage

There were hearts linked in empathy, filled and declaring
That we hold ever open to be rid of despairing
come feed one another, it’s akin to mother’s love
the source of birds music it was faith and was trust
Yes I saw interdependence, and inherent sweetness
which evolved within sunlight and kindred tall branches
which for their support was so good and so grand
not alone in our own lives, within we are wrens
Who are made to their mission a tune that intones
bless each embroidered sphere of sea and of stone
Wherever folks gather, to imply a rule
They are each a beginner, each one a jewel
For if I bring my whimsy, and if I sing a song
I have known blest compassion availing upon
To imagine a sharing of burdens I yearned
To heal from the elders i strove so to learn
God is one forest, and Jesus one bud
The world is wherein you’ll be found made of mud