A call goes out from the hollow earth
and all the underground cities: it's time to
sing
the Panis Angelicus, to call up the Angel of Bread,
the Angel of Broken Ground, the angels
shaggy coated, rough as oxen. Even the rooted
long to wander. Hold your hand out
to be read: You will cross water.
Cup it over your ear. What calls? What answers?
_________
Don't ask me to explain it. It was written by my Royal Self. Except for the first line, which was written by Mikos the Giant Catharian.
But -- Panis Angelicus: "Bread of Angels" -- my favourite piece of sacred music, a hymn for the Eucharist, from a text by St. Thomas Aquinas.
And this goes right before "What Calls, What Answers" in Too Strong to Stop, Too Sweet to Lose. Or that's the plan at the moment.
I
love the image of the shaggy coated angels. I like this a great deal, even if you can't explain it. Some of the poems I tend to like best of my own are ones that I can't quite explain.
I love the underlying song that runs through it...the call,then the pull that makes the rooted long to wander, and the positive belief that crossing water will happen.
I wonder what Mikos would think about such spiritual linking to Aquinas? ;)
I too, like it. I'm not sure about the flow from the angel of broken ground to the next two lines. And why isn't it named "what calls us"?
Crystal: I'm not sure how Mikos would feel -- I don't know him very well. I'm think St. Thomas would be good-humoured about it, though.
Therese: Because the next one is called "what calls, what answers." Good thought, though. What if I call this one "what calls" and "what calls, what answers" just "what answers"?