What Do You See? – Willow Poetry
Image provided.
“Theologians may quarrel, but the mystics of the world speak the same language.”
Meister Eckhart
Misplaced
A medieval babel
we built the cloister as if to reach heaven,
high and lofty
grand as a statement of our
misplaced devotion,
realising too late
that there is nothing big enough to catch,
let alone contain,
that which we call God
who dwells in much humbler
less rational cathedrals.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
So true, and beautifully penned as always. Made me think of something–have you seen the program “The Story of God” with actor Morgan Freeman? It’s a TV series here in the US–Freeman visits countries to learn about all the world’s religions, how people interpret who God is and what He’s about. Rather fascinating…anyway, recently he visited a cathedral with possibly the highest ceiling in the world, and your poem reminded me of it.
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Agreed. I wrote a post about this same subject.
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It is, I think, something on our minds, almost perennial, a desire to be rid of the rational.
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Beautiful poem Paul. Amazing structure.
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Thanks Helene, the unconscious was hard at work.
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How great that is.
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Yes indeed
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Misplaced? Totally!
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Yeah! 🙂
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So beautiful!❤️
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Richa thank you very much
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Hey Paul! I’d like to invite you to enter my random drawing for a totally free novel! Check it out here:
https://cafephilos.blog/2019/03/24/act-now-get-your-free-novel/
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Many thanks
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Thanks Sir for the awesome poem.
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Many thanks Francis
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You are most welcome.
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We will always be too weak to conceive. We see the world through 1000 veils and nobody can do it away.
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Too true
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Amen to that!
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Thank you VJ, I now see we have facets of a thread or thought in some ways.
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We do!
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🙂
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🙂 Well put!
Even as a kid i realized the absurdity of claiming to have “him” locked up in a golden box.
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I like that, “locked up in a golden box” the irony.
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Fantastic.
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Thank you for your very kind response.
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The image of a cathedral as something designed to catch and house god strikes me as brilliant, Paul. “World’s largest, most vain mousetrap” in a sense.
So far as I can see, a key difference between religion and mysticism is that almost all mystics I know of stubbornly insist the more you possess (of any type of possession), the less chance you have of a mystical experience.
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Spot on, and so agree with your response too, thank you
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Loved this. Misplaced devotion…those two words say it all – we do not need temples of light to see the light.
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Yes, so true, we do not, but so many fall for it. I think we’re starting to move beyond though.
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I hope you are right!
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Yes, but the evidence is there, small numbers, growing.
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So very true and beautifully stated.
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Thank you for sharing your thoughts Punam, much appreciated
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My pleasure, Paul.
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This is definitely going to be one of my favourites
>
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I thought it might be 🙂
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Pingback: What do you See? Roundup March/26/2019 | Willow Poetry
Thank you Helene
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Brilliantly put. Yes, I feel more spiritually connected on a Mountain or in nature than in any monument of religious aggrandisement.
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Yes, so much more connected out there, than in the canary cage.
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I was just watching a history show which had an episode of a small country that celebrates John Frum Day… Kind of like a religion…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Frum
Also another religious place in Africa… Look up the Church of St. George in The town of Lalibela, Ethiopia. Might have been the same program – Josh Gates Explorations… Really quite amazing the history of people and what they build and worship.
The more I know of all organized faiths, the more I like the unorganized belief that all are good. I like your poetic interpretation.
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Thank you Jules – I so agree, the unorganised are truer.
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The last lines here were stunning!
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Thank you so much Nathan
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