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Why would you, such an ardent Lover, seek me?
Are you, whom they call "God," so unknown by
those who claim to know you, to speak for you,
that power and right most defines you,
not humility and surrender?
Or, my Beloved, does not Love itself, being Love,
witness of Itself and to me of such unknowing
and another true knowledge?
Then, if there is this other knowledge, and true,
like the True Love oneed to me, eternally, should I not sacrifice all religion and every creed, too,
before bowing to a lesser god than you?
And is not this other god of pure power and justice other than you who melted my heart into yours and yours into mine in a sweet intercourse, and inebriating madness, I can not betray,
so sweet is it and quenching of thirst for meaning, and giving of hope, freedom always?
No! their powerful, prejudicial deity, shaped
in the image of fear~sculpted among those who believe
they are safe only as long as they mark off the boundaries
from the hearts and minds of others unlike them~though alike we all are~I do resist such a god!
I cannot, by grace, be ungracious to any, nor in Love be unloving to one.
Rather, in his face, unlike mine,
and in her voice, different from mine,
I see the One Light shining more brightly
than one hue of the Sun alone could ever illumine
such glorious Beauty.
Therefore, as my heart is true, and you my Love, too,
I cannot and will not bow to a god most defined
by power or right.
I bow to you, my Beloved, for you, in Jesus,
show me One
who captured my heart,
resurrected my desires,
and freed me from the prison of brute force.
You are not, my Beloved, god of my childhood, now lost,
but God of my heart, now, entwined with me
in rapturous embrace.
I who felt so unworthy of such Love,
you drew me to your breast; and there
I imbibed the water of life.
I who felt so unworthy of you,
you drew me to your mouth; and there
I breathed inward the breath of life.
I who felt so unworthy of such bliss,
we fell into each other's arms; and there
our bodies became, in one, a tree of life.
If this losing myself, my Love, is to find such Desire
fulfilled, a yearning my heart you shaped for
from eternity to eternity, and more;
may I die every moment
in your arms.
My Love, I praise you, for in finding you,or
you finding me, I found myself, at last.
Could it be my Lover, that to know fully Love
as Love, you, Truest of All Loves,
had to find me, too?
*Brian K. Wilcox, July 3, 2007
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