majesties, cy pres doctrine, volume 2

7/29/2019 Majesties, Cy Pres Doctrine, Volume 2

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Majesties______________________________

Cy Pres Doctrine

Volume 2

Witness of the Arrival2000-2009

Michael Bolerjack


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Majesties, Cy Pres Doctrine, Volume 2:

Witness of the Arrival 2000-2009

2013 Michael Bolerjack


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SPEECHES


541/811

He Said I Thought Youd Fold

He said I thought youd foldWhen you heard

Your word pronounced.

Condemned

Without hearing,

Hearing

Without under-

Standing,

I went on

Mistaking my

Smashing and

Sharding for

Destined design.

But out of the

Splinters

One signed

Next to mine

In unknowable

Darkness.

Sought for and found,

I was surprised

At the undoing.

Then, with half a mind,

I slanted the lines

And heard the hidden

Word undisturbed,Reigning heart-

Wards,

Up-

Turned in time.


542/811

She Withdraws

She withdraws,

And in truncatedReality I wait,

Hoping for return.

Her love is,

But at times

There is a caesura,

A pause, a

Skipped beat,

That reminds me of theEnd,

When the

Awaited

Arrives.


543/811

The Fate of Fire

The fate of fire is to burn,

The soul of the knife is to cut.Speech follows thought, as

Action flows from the beginning.

Wait in the withdrawal

And she will come nigh,

Her, the one you wanted,

Whose word is Wisdom,

Whose touch is Joy.


544/811

They Climb

They climb

The building,They climb and

They climb,

Until the relevant

Wind takes them,

Each singly,

Then all,

Together,

Up,Into the storm and

Beyond,

To the place where

God rains his

Salvationwind,

Which falls where

Once they climbed.

Destruction is theSaving place,

And the storm

Gods calm

Eye.


545/811

Marked By Hubris

Marked by hubris,

Attenuated by time,A path was given me,

Chosen for healing.

On the way

I have felt all the

Hopes and fears

Common to mortality.

Some imperishable thing

Rises up in me and saysStand and make,

Stand and do,

Not knowing where

Poetic compulsion

Comes from,

Which forever stands

Amid the fall of the world,

The placement of these words,As particular and fine,

As obscure and free,

As dust.


546/811

I, Having Given Myself

I, having given myself

To words,Hang suspended

In the stupendous

And turn,

Far,

Perhaps,

From him, though

Dreams seem so

Real;Yet, I am told

His hand supports me,

Like light toward,

Like breath escapes.


547/811

The Net Was Not Torn

The net was not torn,

Not yet,And the molecular chains and

Enzymes,

The chemical balance

Maintains,

And I,

Believing,

Live twenty-four hours

At a time.


548/811

We Live In Aftertimes

We live in aftertimes,

As we have forgotten.What burden or destiny,

What silence could

Un-speech us,

Keep us from testimony and

Impeach us,

In aftertimes,

That is,

Keep us from eachOther;

Yet we fall

Apart,

For the price of a soul

In aftertimes is next to

Nothing.


549/811

False Sorrow

False sorrow

Is the unnecessaryManipulation of

Feeling

To produce a tear in the

Eye

Where one should already

Stand.


550/811

A Decade of Revolution

A decade of revolution

Awaits us, weStamped indelibly with

The invisible ink of

The sign,

The invisible light of

The book,

The indivisible bond,

Beyond breaking,

The ties of mine andThine.


551/811

Overawed By the Simplicity

Overawed by the simplicity

Of you and do,Of make and take,

I approached the altar

Heedless,

Bringing my gift,

Beyond all hope,

Between the moment you left me

And the moment you returned.

That gift,How heartless it now seems,

Having missed

You,

In your absence,

Surviving

An hour,

Lone-

Lie-R.


552/811

If I Missed You

If I missed you in

CircumstancesUnavoidable,

How would time

Hold?

If we were to miss

Each other even once,

All presence

Would be lost

In the missing,Jumbled music,

With no one,

No one,

To scatter symphonies

Or spell the binding song.


553/811

If He Crowned You

If he crowned you,

If he made you an ever-Lasting, imperishable

Sign, I would still

Read to you and

Need you as I do,

Speaking poverty to

Holiness,

Artless,

Poetic.


554/811

In the Benumbed

In the benumbed

NumberlessFragments

Of time

I seek you out,

Call your

Name,

Reach over against

You,

Again andAgain,

Until all

Thats left.


555/811

To Feel You

To feel you,

Firm and cool,Beneath my hands,

And to know we have done this

Thing,

Irrevocable,

To carry us on,

Calms my restlessness

For a moment,

Touching you,Whom heaven,

To forget the world,

By promise,

In its oath,

Is taking up

And making

Real.


556/811

The Delicate Strength

The delicate strengthOf your fingernails,

To one side and

The tingle of

Your hair,

Tells me you are coming again

And I uncover.


557/811

Ten Thousand Times

Ten thousand timesI have loved you

In your presence,

In your comings and goings,

And found refuge

In your gaze;

Where others glance and

Look away,

You see me.


558/811

You Lie Naked

You lie naked onThe bed,

Sheets slipping

Away, and

In the curve

Of your hip

I see what moves

The world.


559/811

Mirror Sequence

Mirror sequence still,Open to life,

Long you wait,

Long you want,

With fearful smile,

To ward off,

Contain

Possibility,

Feeling the approachOf the different

In waters rising,

Labile,

The moment of life

Breaking in and

Sweeping you,

Still smiling,

Away.


560/811

No Dearth, No Death

No dearth, no death,The time of fulfillment

Around us,

We lay on

Our bed,

Indissoluble

Against

The rushing

Tide.


561/811

Before the Anvils

Before the anvilsDisappear,

Before the hammers

Sound

On us again,

We,

Replete with armor,

Resonate.

Before the ironPurifies,

Let my dross

Ignite,

Awakening you.

Let your fire

Catch.


562/811

In Your Fierce Eyes

In your fierce eyesAnd smiling shadowed brow

Let this one question

Turn:

If we wring out

The caverns of romance,

Where will we go?


563/811

After Summer

After summer,After sweat and

After song,

What remains

For us,

In scattered airs

And accented syllables,

Of near touches

Of light,And the sensitivity

To it?


564/811

I Saw Myself

I saw myselfFor a few

Seconds

Today,

Until you came between

The sun and I,

And we blended

Paler

Into the gravelOf the walk.


565/811

If Events

If events cluster in time,Then truth is, and is as

Much in their patterns

As in things themselves.

These are the plans for

The house of instruction,

In which the relations of poetry

Are the windows and doors.


566/811

If Pain

If pain,Which I seldom feel,

Is the thing to be feared,

Then why fall in love?

If love,

Which abounds,

Yet falls apart so easily,

Is the prize,

Why is the competition notKeener?

Why do we not

Out do each other

In love?

If truth

Can only be under-

Stood

By believing,Why does the factual flood

Not support our faith?

If the stars

Are out of

Reach,

Why do they

Shine so

Incessantly?They shed no

Light,

Yet, we make them out, in

The bible-blackness of

Heaven.


567/811

If God Comes

If God comes atThe close of time,

What will He say to

The clockwatchers

Who missed Him

In the pulsebeat

Not measured

But living?


568/811

Only One Thing Stands

Only one thing standsBetween God and I,

And this one thing is so

Enormous,

Yet,

God closes his eyes,

Once in a while.


569/811

The Ever Present

The ever presentIs the thing

In which you stand singly,

And you think,

All cannot be thought,

But can be felt.

For speech,

In this limit,

Need.


570/811

Halting Words

Halting wordsAnd shaking trees,

The wind catching us,

Throwing us about,

I chased you in

The echoing air.

You,

The one who had sung,

While I talked.We,

Now almost mute,

Except for my intellect and

Your forgiveness.


571/811

You, Having Gone Gray

You,Having gone gray,

Looked older and

Almost anonymous,

Unlike the one you were

To me.

You,

Focused,

Had the presence of mind toSpeak my name,

As you once had, before

Walking away.


572/811

Returning to the Place

Returning toThe place of my shame,

Standing there with

More than a trace of regret,

Still feeling shame,

Is,

And will be,

The emotion of the certainty of

The pathDelineated;

It was truth,

Despite revisions

Of the event

By all involved.

Now,

We are older

And harder still,Perhaps,

And the issues have changed.

Where once need was,

Stands compassion,

Where once fear and philosophy

Were stands thinking now,

And poetry and prayer.

Out of infinite heavinessComes something unpredicted,

And this, too,

Forgiveness.


573/811

If Infinity

If InfinityIs,

Then there is

Nothing

Discrete in nature,

Except thoughts,

Flickering

Off and on,

Crystalline patternsTaken up and

Down.


574/811

If the Space Between

If the space betweenUs is silent,

Why does song

Rise up?

Why do words

Persist in saying?

Why do lovers

Rhyme?

There is an accordThat remains,

Announcing itself

When they meet;

They mark out

With careful silences

The words and limits.


575/811

Beyond

Beyond the gazeOf the old man in his bed

She saw something

No one could name,

For only moments,

But still impressed in her,

As if he had seen the gift,

And she, in his look,

A blessing,A glance of

The glory.


576/811

Immutable

ImmutableHis breathing,

His passing,

His song;

Departure

Had its

Reasons;

Making himself

Greater,He did those who stood there.


577/811

If the Consequences

If the consequencesOf truth are,

Then all

Will be revealed;

The founder

Would have it so;

To impart song,

Beyond the framework,

Was the intention,But ears made deaf have sealed mouths

Made dumb, the way to the origin,

The place where movement,

Covering herself with sheer

Syllables of gladness,

Divorces language

From idea and recalls her

First love,Chanted cry and

The mouth unstopped

In vocal air.


578/811

If Goodness

If goodnessCould be bought,

It would be made

Inexpensive,

For it is not much

In demand.


579/811

It is Wise

It is wise and goodFor the overpowering God

To remain hidden in eternity,

For He calls forth toward

The mystery our best

And does not make us afraid

To protest or

To question

The order of things,Our situation,

Blind,

But open to song.

e He


580/811

If Listening

If listening is being open,

As Jesus said,

Why not make more space,

More distance?

Must we hold on so tightly?

Is reality that hard to grasp?

Or do our words fail us

In ways our hands and eyesDo not?


581/811

If You Had Trusted

If you had trusted

Yourself

Not to impose

Demonic infinity,

Rather the ever

Dreamed,

But dead,

In electrical discharge.Chemistry condemned you

To an eternity

You denied

But became,

Without which

No poet is.


582/811

Inconsolable

Inconsolable

In our disappearing,

We seek to understand,

Yet find only life

And those speaking;

Instead,

We grasp givens.

In hope declined,Without progeny,

A ceaseless track of

Celebrant presence

Binding;

But was it sufficient?

When the wine?

Where our new world?

The wordEver

Cuts both ways

And we,

Not without piety,

Look and miss

The heart of things,

The reign,

Ever.In the time

To come,

Will this ever

Be?


583/811

He Has No Grave

He has no grave.

Let dusks wind

Carry his ashes,

A little more than we feel

In our hands,

Past the gales of remembrance;

His ashes scattered,

His grave is in the air.Even in death

He was denied

The dirt he desired.

Lacking ground,

He fits this way and that,

Filling lungs,

Clinging,

Graying the grass;Someday,

When that land is no more,

He may lie more peacefully,

But where I live,

Incineration continues

Unabated,

Death and love

Lingering.


584/811

I Offered

I offered my face to the blow

And embraced the heart

Of conflagration,

The grip of ashen

Consummation;

Stars, too,

Explode;

All collapse,Pure in their swallowing the light,

Such as we, bound

By the sacrifice of release,

From brilliance,

To end a cloud of gems,

Heavy,

Flung out,

Generating other worlds,Floating,

Without night,

Without light.


585/811

Out of the Stillness

Out of the stillness

Of your breasts,

The place I pressed

My face

To feel a stay

In the night,

Not alone,

I looked up toYou,

Smiling,

And the sadness mingled

With your smile,

As if you said,

When you look here,

You fail the stillness,

Yet I know you must.


586/811

If You Found

If you found yourself

Lost in a moment of time,

Not reckoning,

How could you come to it?

How much time would have to pass

Before faiths moment

Restored you?

Where could the encounter take place?What would you do?

Avoid creating time?

Or, would you be, as always,

Oblivious to everything but

The framework.


587/811

Was Your Look Meant

Was your look meant to beckon

Or dissuade?

To send me gently back to your breasts

Or to call me up higher,

To your mouth,

The place of speech and song and

The beginnings of love?

In the kiss,The mouth, past speech, past song,

Finds another,

And in the touch, an healing sacrament,

In paradox here, an opening,

Love in the void, a space almost pure,

But for the passage of bodies,

Our duality and more,

Which God transformsFrom waste to glory,

So we too may initiate with

Tongues the speech of kisses,

Where once were only

The rudiments

Of pleasure and

Solitary cries.


588/811

If All We Ever

If all we ever have

Is this,

I am satisfied,

Yet you still look to the horizon,

While I center in you.

Confusion past,

The cup pours her

Two diceInto our waiting hands,

As we turn with the roar

Of the spinning,

Precession angle,

Just before conflagration,

Finding equipoise

In the other,

Another nameFor what we

Become.


589/811

If We Let It

If we let it rest,

Would it be of its own

Accord?

Or should we give a

Caress,

Or a more savage

Movement,

To let us know,In lifes interest,

A concentration of feeling,

In hands and eyes,

Concerning the first,

Our principal we say,

Our love seen apart,

Our limitation.


590/811

Life is Easy

Life is easy

When I release myself

And bridge us,

Coming to a more findable

You,

In familial solitude

And expectancy,

Addressed in bareNecessity.


591/811

Tissue

Tissue, deep life, moonrise,

Mountains insurgent.

We enter,

Again and again,

In cries and bursts,

The swinging of

The scepter.

You let go,Ever nearer,

Taunting me with

The abandonment

Of innocence.


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Youd Better

Youd better say it,

God is near,

And knows us

In deeper ways

Than we depend,

Raising us to

Plateaus,

Reaching,As do you and I,

For the graspable,

For remembrance,

For saying yes and no,

Separated now in the worlds

Night, though

Once inseparable.

Such he took,Such he gave,

Indivisible,

Dark light,

Before anyone knew

Difference.


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The Words

The words

Themselves,

Their lack or

Beauty,

Mean nothing,

If beneath

There is not

Depth,Else all is sheen,

Slick surface.

Under them,

A pain unutterable,

Even unidentifiable,

The unknown need,

The strife of hearts and

Heartless ones.


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Words Say

Words say it, but we,Sealed in crypts,

Lacking life, cant feel

What could penetrate

Everything we are not.

Yet,

At a depth unknowable,

Not a yes,

Not a word,But the dwelling of

The life sentence,

The death sentence.

These things we seek

And cannot find,

For the heartless

Sooner trample them.

They play on to our beating.In triumph they batten.

Death,

At the hands of the heartless,

Substitutes,

Transubstantiates,

Turning mortality itself into

Recovery song,

Biding, having given all,Becoming one,

Consolation as yet unknown,

The mystery and the mercy

Of the self-afflicted

Wound.


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When I Look Into Your Eyes

When I lookInto your eyes,

I see glaciers falling,

Light sparring,

Momentum gathered,

Earth at her zenith,

No dejection.

The fire in you rises,

Your clothes loose in the wind,A Breath of God

On your hair,

And stars around

To abet your

Half-smiling lips,

Now serious,

Now laughing.

In your transitions isAbiding,

A certainty next to durable

Unknowns,

Making the thorns of the heart

Easier to bleed,

The tears not awkward

To drop.


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At Summers End

At summers end,With a storm on the horizon,

The vacationers are packing

Up and going home.

Weve decided to stay.

Our love was late

In coming, so

We will stay,

Despite the storm.And if the wind blows rain

Against us in the threatened gale,

He will not neglect to lead us

To the higher ground.

If memorys map fails and

Imagination, too, yet

He will ever be.


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John Paul II and the SecondVatican Council


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Enlightenment


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Anniversary Song


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Speech and Silence


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Responsibility and Restitution


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Sections from

The Tower of Babble


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Four parts of the novel are presented: the preface on moral beauty,

with dedications, the ten part outline, and the opening and concluding

monologues. It did not seem worthwhile to reproduce the bitter

diatribes of the poet, or the dialogues with his friend, but the

monologues by the woman who became the poets wife have been

chosen as the better part, especially as they invoke the Virgin at the

end of the work.

Michael Bolerjack


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APPENDIX: THREE MARIAN THEMES (1994)


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majesties, cy pres doctrine, volume 2

Documents