On Singh

On Reading Darshan Singh

Faith is a madness
That reason has no reasons for.
Logic keeps God laughing,
Though it gets us through the day.
The day God died,we lived
Then died again
By making sense out of it,
Not knowing there was
No sense in it,
Outside of Presense
Faith is nonsense.
Faith is not sense.
Faith is not seeing,
Or seeing without eyes
Faith is a blind man's cane
Tap, tap, tapping on God's door
While He is on the other side
Knock, knock, knocking on ours.
He is the one writing love poetry.
We swing our saucy skirts
And give no limen to love.
This is the sum of it all, Darshan,
It is madness not to believe
And believing is madness too.


Note: Darshan is a Hindi word that means to behold and enjoy the elevating presence of a loved one to the extent that one becomes totally lost in him or her; a kind of insanity. Also it is the first name of an Urdu poet who wrote "Love's Last Madness."

Peniel

Peniel

The Angel of the Lord is down by the river.
Also there, the candidates –
The would-be men and women of God,
Contesting for the blessing.

Look not for the one who returns
With church bell voice
That pierces to your gut.
Nor the one with shining face
That makes you feel faint.

Look, look for the one who limps,
For there is no other way to return
From wresting with God.

CurtMortimer

Jacob is the original wrestler with God. Just before the wrestling at Peniel, Jacob had been at Bethel. There he saw a vision of a ladder ascending up into heaven. The angel declared an all inclusive promise to him there. Jacob was a grasping personality. If there was a blessing to be had, he was going to have it. Thus here at Peniel he wasn't going to let the heavenly messenger go until he blessed him. In the poem, I was thinking of young men and women in seminary or in bible school. In reality it applies to anyone who wants God's blessing in their life.