This is a poem I wrote for one of my Master’s papers on the nature of humanity. I find that when I am writing raw poetry, I am able to say so much more with less words than when I am writing prose. In the film Contact, Jodie Foster’s character, seeing the beauties of the cosmic wonderland she touches, says “Poetry. They should have sent a poet.”
BLEND OF FIRES
On Human Nature
Blend of fires, earth and heav’n,
Beat within the mortal breast;
Transcendent love to hellish hate,
Vie in human souls on quest
Yet deep found love, and beauty’s taste,
Makes image shine though stained and quelled;
When fear and courage both require,
That finer features in us swell
And so today, this story grasped,
Means now I treat you as a flame;
That burns within the sacred breast,
Of he who gave you breath and name
If sweet redemptive voices called,
To wake your flesh from death to life;
Would you now hear celestial songs,
That lift you by their tunes so ripe?
Your nature true is divine borne,
Your eyes they glow with sparks beyond;
Yet stained and shadowed now you are,
In need of light to wave its wand
Be still and know that one who tends,
Such remedy is close and kind;
And if you turn your dimming frame,
Toward his cure yourself you’ll find
As nature starts, so it can end,
Though embattled is this coil;
For shattered images can mend,
When Love’s applied as healing oil.
Dan Wilt, May ’06
