Confession of the Prophets and the Saints

From "A Book of Lamentations"

And when we see
God, we see God
sideways. Always
with peripheral
vision, from the
corner of the eye.

And when we’re moved
by God’s spirit, we’re
swept sideways. Stumbling
on at an angle to the way
we ought to go. Thinking
always just a few degrees
off from whatever truth
first grabbed us by the gut.

There are words for this godward
stumble in the angel’s tongue.
Heaven know why, in today’s English,
their iceberg tip comes out so often
as I know.

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Originally published in A Book of Lamentations