A Day before the Great God’s Sabbath
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
“By meer playing go to Heaven” ~ Henry Vaughan (April 17, 1621 – April 23, 1695)
My brothers, cousins (I, too) went to play
And found ourselves near heaven. In a grove
Of orange trees, glossed green and gold, one day
Of orb above and orbs below, we strove
With boy warm arms and hands to build a weir
Across a stream more meaningful in flow
Than rivers shining in the eyes a seer
Might conjure in a vision of the glow
Of Adam’s garden. There we placed each stone
As if Jehovah had not understood
The splashing universe, still unbeknown,
Should be from nothingness to wonder stood.
We could not know in ripening muscled skin
That we worked in an Eden lacking sin.
~ Phillip Whidden