Friday, November 15, 2013

"Being not unlovable but strange and light..."


To celebrate the release of Deathbed Conversions: Finding Faith at the Finish Line, I'm sharing a poem I included in the book.

As an adult convert, there are so many lines here that I love:

the whole world turned over and came upright 
...
Being not unlovable but strange and light;
...
Old riddles and new creeds 
...
And all these things are less than dust to me/Because my name is Lazarus and I live.

The Convert
by G.K. Chesterton

After one moment when I bowed my head
And the whole world turned over and came upright,
And I came out where the old road shone white.
I walked the ways and heard what all men said,
Forests of tongues, like autumn leaves unshed,
Being not unlovable but strange and light;
Old riddles and new creeds, not in despite
But softly, as men smile about the dead

The sages have a hundred maps to give
That trace their crawling cosmos like a tree,
They rattle reason out through many a sieve
That stores the sand and lets the gold go free:
And all these things are less than dust to me
Because my name is Lazarus and I live.

(from The Collected Poems of G. K. Chesterton)

~~~~~

The Poetry Friday round up is being hosted today by the inimitable Jama Rattigan, at Jama's Alphabet Soup. 

4 comments:

jama said...

Congratulations on your new book! Exciting news :).

Beautiful and uplifting poem by Chesterton. Thanks for sharing.

tanita✿davis said...

ABSOLUTE SHIVERS that poem gave me. Lovely.

Kimberlee said...

How perfect for your book! The whole world can indeed turn over and come upright, right at the very last. Deo Gratias

Karen Edmisten said...

Jama, thank you!
Shivers, Tanita! Me, too.
Yes, Kimberlee -- such a beautiful thing.