Milky Way, image by Evgeni Tcherkasski, on Pixabay
Ontology
I look to the heavens
plead questions
The stars remain silent
I look to the sky
coax clouds for answers
They only speak language of rain
I look to the firmament
plow its soil for words
There is no treasure of wisdom
I look to the ocean
sink to its depths
Only fathom its silence
I look within
find You tucked in the folds
of my heart
Answers on your lips
_____________________
Supernova
From the beginning, His grace
spread a myriad of galaxies
across the heavens as a curtain,
hung an embroidery of stars
in cunning spiral seams, spinning
them to hem the heavens,
and on earth, each and every one of us
lay claim to our own birthday star
to wish upon before the candles blow
out all our waxing dreams,
promised dreams as countless as the stars
around the Promised Star so full of Light.
He stretched His arms across the sky,
embraced them all, then cried
a billion tears whose weight
had bulged and tore the fabric
of the temple veil, rifting space
and time. That Sun spilled its
blood—red torrents of forgiveness—
as His heart went supernova that day,
His star becoming the silver dust
that glitters all the hope of night today.
_______________
John C. Mannone has poems appearing in North Dakota Quarterly, Poetry South, and hundreds of others, including Christian venues such as Windhover, Heart of Flesh Literary Journal, Credo Espoir, Scriblerus Arts Journal. He was awarded a Jean Ritchie Fellowship (2017) in Appalachian literature and served as the celebrity judge for the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (2018). He edits poetry for Abyss & Apex and other journals. A retired physics professor, John lives in Knoxville, Tennessee.
August 2021 issue