The Advent of Dawn
Why leap ye, ye high hills, hills of Bashan
into the darkling veiled obscurity
of the cloudy shadows east of Jordan?
The tongues of your cows pant dry for water,
and your oaks stand bare in the tenebrae
in the dust of Og and this dim-lit night.
Why do you leap and wait and watch, oh hills?
the armies long ago have fled apace
and lions hide in Golan, waiting too
Waiting east of Galilee for some dim
hint, waiting and watching, and leaping, all,
with a veiled felt glimmer of a Coming
Wait well, high hills, your waiting tones the pang
in the lulls of every creature's heart beat,
even in the sighs and gasps of the earth
And look high, for light will shine into dark
and a king dine in Edrei with marked men
deep in the depths of your rocky fortress
Look high to Hermon, to the north, and wait
remember Job and his suffering heart
and keep a store of fine barley and wheat
and be ready.
...
Somehow drawn, I took courage and fled west ,
from between the Tigris and Euphrates,
way up into the high hills of Bashan
At the Akkadian feasts I have dined
and sipped the verse of Enheduanna;
the rulers have even acknowledged me
But I have left the city to find you
looking and finding only a crumb trail
to the hills where I go to find my Lord
For every trick has given me a brief glee
and every riddle has left me wanting
all my sash and finery is dead weight
What good are wings dripping with silver shine
and feathers golden from spoils of a war
when gravity will surely fell the dove?
A purple glass gives light its own color;
all other colors come into it, but
it is not possessed by what it takes in
A stillness covers the hills of Bashan;
I wander up into a hushed thicket
Where did you call? Did thy mighty voice crack?
or give way?
...
Howl, fir tree, for the cedar is fallen;
the impenetrable forest is swept,
and shepherds wail with Favor and Union
All hide as one lion clamors about
for none is Samson, David, nor Daniel
And we, all, lay cupping our ears below
In silence straining for the tenored voice
which turns dawn to dark and treads on Anu
and raises me from the earthly chasms
Listening, echoes, quietude, crackling,
a fire has taken the oaks and cedars
but leaves untouched the venerable seed
A lowly lone august root will remain;
surely I will not wither in this crack
where I have placed my one audacity
From a ledge, I'll play the timbrel, waiting
for the leap of a stag, who may give word
to the turn of the moon or a strange Growl
Shall I wait in the clouds, or shall I leap
from the highest hills, the hills of Bashan?
(will you meet me in the mist of morning?)
Or give way?
