God, My Lover Poem by Daniel Y.
God, My Lover
You are a mystery to me,
God my lover,
the poet with velvet hands
and a heart like a war-drum.
You know my hidden faults
and you prize them especially.
You know what makes me angry
You know how to make me laugh
You're a morning person: it's despicable
yet I can't help smiling.
God of mine, who do you worship?
My body's a temple
run your fingers along the cracks
of my facade.
Our anniversary you honor
though just a banal day,
you made it special
took me to a private place
and whispered secrets in my ear.
Oh, God!
The voyeuristic play.
In dark places you find me.
Your eyes dance upon my skin.
At night, I listen to your chest
and dream of the promises
the life we grow old together,
and then we fall asleep.
We will wake again,
it feels like you've resurrected me.
Great poem! Really well written. I Ike the part about the poet with velvet hands.
The first stanza presents one of God's paradoxes: he has a poet's velvet hands (a lover's too presumably) the gentleness of God, BUT he has a heart like a war drum - no gentleness there. A subtler paradox suggests a complicated morality is in play: YOU KNOW MY HIDDEN FAULTS/AND PRAISE THEM ESPECIALLY. What? That's just confusing! What happened to the God who spelled out his commandments clearly and forcefully through codes, punishments, penance. Well, that's the lost God, the absent God, the God who died - take your pick. We are now in the world of the Paradoxical God. And this God gives ambiguous gifts: HE TOOK ME TO A PRIVATE PLACE/AND WHISPERED SECRETS IN MY EAR. That is clearly pulling the human lover into his confidence, the last thing we'd associate with most historical Gods. Is this valuable knowledge? Can he use it to his advantage? Does it make him god-like? These questions are not yet answerable; they are puzzling.
I thought I made it more clear throughout the poem what types of faults I was talking about. Just like a couple in love, You know what makes me angry / You know how to make me laugh / You're a morning person: it's despicable / yet I can't help smiling. It's a case of strange compatibility, in which SOME OF THOSE FAULTS ARE DESIGNED TO FIT SOMEWHERE. They find their proper place and cease to be faults. This is even further emphasized in the cracks of my facade, his love is not in the facade, but the cracks in which what is underneath shines through. This is a biblical metaphor which has lost much of its popularity and impact, the wife of god. I think it deserves serious contemplation. See McFague's books for more on this.
Interesting, Daniel. The hidden faults I was referring to were not sin, but the things which we don't like about ourselves which god had actually placed in us all along. The whispering also alludes back to Elijah, god was in the silence. The god of paradox has always been the historical god, because his ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts. This is a perfect window into the analogy of a confused lover. Why does he love me?
This poem does not define God which would entail limiting him, and the purpose driving this poem is to see how far we can stretch notions clustered around the word. And so the starting point is one of surprising intimacy: God and the speaker as lovers, the love relationship puts both figures on common ground, the better to observe their interaction. I think the poem's key word is in the last stanza, namely, HEURISTIC, because both figures will be discovering things about the SELF and that OTHER, nothing is handed down a priori. I have to approach from the speaker's perspective because his POV is expressed. His initial statement YOU ARE A MYSTERY TO ME really sums things up, he doesn't gain knowledge of God's nature, he gains experience through being with God, that is, the LOVE AFFAIR. Two things characterize the experience: God's paradoxes and God's gifts of privileges.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/16/2024 4:19:03 AM # 1.0.0.1119
God should remain a mystery. it is so fine to read God is my lover. God is my lover too. i adore him in the innermost recess of my heart. You are very much biblical.. body is a temple.. reminding me of St. Paul. Your eyes dance upon my skin. you end up with the sense of resurrection. sooooooooo nice a poem . thank you for sharing. tony