Poetry and Windows

Don't be too harsh to these poems until they're typed.  I always think typescript lends some sort of certainty:  at least, if the things are bad then, they appear to be bad with conviction.  ~Dylan Thomas, letter to Vernon Watkins, March 1938


Bear with me today.  




And here's a non bad poem.  A really good poem in fact:


The Windows


Lord, how can man preach thy eternal word?
         He is a brittle, crazy glass,
Yet in thy temple thou dost him afford
        This glorious and transcendent place,

       To be a window through thy grace. 


But when thou dost anneal in glass thy story.
         Making thy life to shine within
The holy preachers, then the light and glory
        More reverend grows, and more doth win,
        Which else shows wat'rish, bleak, and thin.


Doctrine and life, colors and light, in one
         When they combine and mingle, bring
A strong regard and awe; but speech alone
        Doth vanish like a flaring thing,
        And in the ear, not conscience, ring.

-George Herbert