Thomas Phalen

In the Beginning Was the Word 

In principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum. Gospel of John

I heard the howl, when it stabbed the sky,  
Unleash its spell, as it slashed the wind,   
A troubled cry I could not ignore, surely.                 
Its wordless sorrow remade the night                               
Its lament ran feral, careened back,                
It touched me and enchanted me so purely:
Ululo.  

I heard its primal conjuration                                 
Just like one time that wizard spoke                        
When water was to wine remade, so truly.               
Echo’s resound from the mountain’s throat,            
By sorcery’s cunning song beguiled,               
Remade those rocks, remade me too, profoundly:    
Hallelujah.

I heard judge pass his sentence bewigged
Grave upon matters of life and death                      
Not knowing why but that he must, the jurist.
For who the fool just once to forget                                                    
That all our lives we wander lost?                                     
Full tilt from justice to the arms of mercy:      
Condemno.                                                              

I heard priest cant, his divine invoke,                      
‘Gainst what him now and ever besets                     
Bedeviled by fear and madness, so clueless.             
Unmade by beauty and by life’s pain                       
Mad to stanch what’s beyond his scant wit              
His prattle in me never did find purchase: 
Damno.

I heard my voice cry in the night         
When none were near, so no one heard
My chant, my spell, my secret woe, so poorly.
Invoking stone and writhen tree                   
Pale light ashimmer on moonlit sea                                                               
My lone uncanny sound it pierced right through me:          
Clamo.                                               

I heard Mother chant her cradlesong,                     
Her child, sad bawling to the walls,
On which the storm’s teeth outside gnashed so cruelly.      
The love song cast its resistless spell                                 
Quelled weathers inside and out the night                                  
Drear grief composed again in me so sweetly:                    
Lullaby.                                                       

I heard the Mage, her magik chant                          
Her timeless spells of love and loss;                        
Wisdom and riddling mystery, alluring. 
And where’er is heard the naked howl,          
Its song, the oldest prayer of all,                    
Lives love’s lament; its sacred wail enduring:                      
Ululo.