by Ken Sehested
Listen, all you who stagger in desert waste,
disgraced by gloom’s unremitting groan, dragged
daily to death’s gate and the sea’s drowning flood.
The Blessed One stands at the gate of plenty.
The Beloved waits by the well of refreshment.
Abandon your beggarly quest for breath beyond
the pale of praise, for sustenance beyond the tie
that binds all hearts as one.
Behold, every princely posture, every royal
presumption will heave and smash against the
shoal of Heaven’s conspiracy with hope’s insurgence.
On that glad day every voice of distress will confess
that sorrow’s sway shall be displaced by joy’s arousal
and resurrection’s pledge.