My Bright Abyss
Jun 24, 2024
From the book, “My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer,” by Christian Wiman
***I’ve turned this passage into a personal prayer.***
Lord, I can approach you only by means of consciousness,
But consciousness can only approach you as an object,
Which you are not.
I have no hope of experiencing you as I experience the world —
Directly, immediately —
Yet I want nothing more.
Indeed, so great is my hunger for you
— Or is this evidence of your hunger for me? —
That I seem to see you
In the black flower mourners make
Beside a grave I do not know,
In the embers’ innards like a shining hive,
In the bare abundance of a winter tree
Whose every limb is lit and fraught with snow.
Lord, Lord, how bright the abyss inside that “seem.”
