To Him who permits the storm-torn hickory to cross upon itself,
savage as thrown ink lines,
Glory be.
To Him who grants the turkey vulture a bare red face,
so that she might reach between ribs of the dead
and pick meat off their bones;
Who beholds
the rusted eye of Jupiter, blasting?
(Like a woman in her fury? I cannot tell.)
Even so, glory be.
Nor can I tell if He ordains
or simply allows hail to bruise
the soft bodies of tree frogs;
or why he does not stop the wild dog
from laughing (by my judgment) overloud.
Glory be to Him
who shaped the teeth of the wolf
in their sockets
‘ere any shepherd shaped his staff;
To Him who planted a fruit-bearing tree then spoke,
“You shall not eat,
for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Glory be.
To Him Who has been from the beginning other,
Who cannot be etherized,
elucidated,
abridged;
Who grants to life gravity and resistance,
Who is untamed by those who would harness Him,
Who spins the moon round,
round and round again,
from dissonance to resolve
until she flushes white and clean,
shining like Moses fresh down from the mountain;
Glory be.
Rebecca K. Reynolds is the editorial director of Oasis Family Media and Sky Turtle Press. She is the author of a text-faithful modern prose rendering of Edmund Spenser’s 1590’s epic poem, The Faerie Queene and of Courage, Dear Heart by Nav Press. Rebecca is a longtime member of the Rabbit Room, and she has spoken at Hutchmoot both in the US and the UK. She taught high school literature for seven years and has written lyrics for Ron Block of Alison Krauss, Union Station.
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