NAPOMO Day 9 (Good Friday): I am the Great Sun

[tree_and_leaf]

I am the Great Sun

(From a Normandy crucifix of 1632)


I am the great sun, but you do not see me,
I am your husband, but you turn away.
I am the captive, but you do not free me,
I am the captain you will not obey.

I am the truth, but you will not believe me,
I am the city where you will not stay.
I am your wife, your child, but you will leave me,
I am that God to whom you will not pray.

I am your counsel, but you will not hear me,
I am your lover whom you will betray.
I am the victor, but you do not cheer me,
I am the holy dove whom you will slay.

I am your life, but if you will not name me,
Seal up your soul with tears, and never blame me.

Charles Causley

Comments

[thefish30.livejournal.com]

wow

[thecatsamuel.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I had forgotten how much I like that poem (and indeed Charles Causley's poetry in general).

[overconvergent.livejournal.com]

I have always loved that poem ...

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

My, that's lovely.

I don't think I've read any Causley before. Will have to remedy that.

[tree_and_leaf]

It's amazing, isn't it?

[tree_and_leaf]

Causeley's really good, he deserves to be better known...

[tree_and_leaf]

It's wonderful, in a hammer-blow sort of way.

[tree_and_leaf]

He wrote a really hair-raising anti-war Christmas one about Herod and the Massacre of the Innocents...

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I'll look for it.

I'm 'mazed to have not heard of him before, truth to tell.

Thanks so much for introducing him.

[tree_and_leaf]

I actually posted Innocents' Song here, but that was before we knew each other. I am slightly surprised you don't know him, though, as people with interests in folk tend to.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

That's stunning. Thank you.

I am slightly surprised you don't know him, though, as people with interests in folk tend to.

Interesting. I did note that when I looked him up online.

I suppose it's that my connexion to song is a bit... second-hand, maybe that's the word. I've spent most of my musical life playing Irish music, which is a very tune-driven environment; even singing Irish songs is almost a second-class activity. The other music I listen to, the English and Scottish folk revival and all of that, it's more been a matter of what I've run into on my own, rather than knowing people and having things reccommended.