Theology Today - Vol 34, No. 2 - July 1977 - POETRY

193 - All In All

If now the time seems out of joint, or skewed,
Glue comes unstuck, whirl's king, flux is, hope dims.
Not so! Disorder hides a plan pursued,
A chain of being joined in synonyms.
To wit: as up, so down; as then, so now;
As out, so in; as there, so here; all ways.
Most things entwine, conjoin, relate somehow.
The universe is one, if we but raise
Our eyes to scan reality's vast net.
As grass upon the field, so is the hair
Upon the head. Once sensed, we'll not forget
The storm outside, inside; they both cohere.
Each thing both great and small enjoys a place
Within the scheme of things; it is God's grace.

The Editor of THEOLOGY TODAY, except for preparing pontifical editorials from time to time, usually confines his prosaic pen to proofing and copy-editing what others write. Herewith, immodestly, a poem, bravely conceived as a Shakespearean sonnet in iambic pentameters. The discipline of constructing a rhyme schema (abab: cdcd; efef- gg) occupied many insomniac hours. What inspiration there may be in the lines derives from Eliade and Jung; the one instructs us in the symbol-outside (myth) and the other in the symbol-inside (the collective unconscious).