the deepening ground

A quiet evening by the open window reading Andrew Klavan’s The Truth and Beauty. The neighbor’s window air conditioner humming incessantly in the background. William Wordsworth’s timely sonnet about the pervasive nature of our modern world. A train whistle in the distance. The bread and the wine. What follows is the synergy of those experiences packed into one moment in time, now immortalized in this poem.

The Communion of Quiet

Vincent H. Anastasi - 2022

                       I.
Last night by the open window
I sat and read the poet's words,
but evening's peace was disturbed
by the constant thrum
of a world too much with us:
        conditioned air,
        internal combustion,
        perpetual motion,
        never at rest.
The fevered cities burn with consumption,
but here, away from our modern Babels,
here where birdsong summons dawn,
here where Wolf Creek thirsts for summer rain
may I still find sanctuary with the Hermit good.

                       II.
In the distance, a whistle blows.
The engine nears; the earth quakes.
The world clamors for attention
and panders to our insatiable appetite for distractions,
yet I crave the pregnant silence
where imagination's labor
delivers restored perception.*
All that is true and beautiful
has always been within reach
of the arcadian soul.
Here is the bread and wine,
here I push back against the cacophony of imposter life,
escape the worst arrogance of this time^
and preserve the mystery of the communion of quiet.

* “The purpose of both mass and poetry is to remeld the world of flesh and spirit, of things and meaning, into one experience, to regain our original perception of creation, the lost perception of Eden, you might say, before we divided creation into good and evil, back when we saw along with God that it was good.” (Klavan 127-128)

^ “For ‘the man coming up from below’ the Wordsworthian experience is an advance. Even if he goes no further he has escaped the worst arrogance of materialism: if he goes on he will be converted.” (C.S. Lewis qtd in Klavan 141)