514 - If God Is a Circle

If God Is a Circle
By Warren L. Molton

If it be true that God is a circle whose
centre is everywhere, the saint goes to
the centre, the poet and artist to the
ring where everything comes round again.
-William Butler Yeats

If God is a circle
whose center is everywhere,
 the saint dwells at the center
and guards the well
from which the water of all life flows,
plants the garden that surrounds the well,
tends the trees of life and love,
while the poet lives at the edge of the circle,
moving back and forth,
from the world to the well,
troubling the saint with questions
and filling his pitcher with water
for the world left at the edge;
and the people say how sweet the water is,
how cold, how fresh and clear,
or they spit it out,
complaining of its brackishness,
calling the poet hateful names
out of their parching throats,
then on some fateful night or day

A pastoral counselor in Kansas City, Missouri, Warren L. Molton has published more than one hundred poems and articles and four books, including Friends, Partners and Lovers (2d ed., 1994).

515 - If God Is a Circle

when the moon is blood
or the sun is in eclipse,
the water turns to wine,
and the poet calls the saint
away from guarding the well
and they drink and dance with the people
who laugh and cry out words
of thanksgiving and praise;
yet, like children before sleep,
their ecstasy turns to anger
as they hang the poet upon a tree
while the saint is taken to his well
and drowned,
just as some pilgrim saint
comes down from the hills
to clear the well once more
and a wandering poet arrives
with a new wineskin.