PCC INSCAPE MAGAZINE
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Divinity of Christ and The Christmas Concert on Orcas Island at Victorian Valley Chapel

Two poems by R.J. Keeler.  

Divinity of Christ

​Divinity of Christ:
The gathering light of candles scores
my guttering faith, a cyst--
refracted by these pithy flames

it needs endure a lance.
My frail faith, my Christocentric ill,
canst thou be ignorance,
or spite? Or via negativa?

Or, —no! Divinest sadism?
Were Christ at hand in living flesh
would He His grace and chrism
sustain—or bow to grace this man?

The search for truth sustains
the man—the quest for truth, a pathless
land. But truth bestained
sports tiny teeth—they know no end.

In truth, my faith has rived.
But He found His through life on earth;
now lifts His hand to shrive
my frail faith, to heal that wound.

Quite alien but curt:
neti neti! Not this, not this!

Such Upanishads avert
Christ’s tender, holy blessing.

The Christmas Concert on Orcas Island at Victorian Valley Chapel

This ovarian island comforted ice
after Polaris sank and Archer followed.
This glacier’s ice, many large-fish thick,
lay black and silent in tented hollows.

Then slowly homeward trudged
our sun, that glacier's executioner;
it flinched and shot its warmth, let
ice recede, let flower and sky concur--

a moss that cradled snow now's home
to melting song. Inside this tiny church
a dozen candles flickered toward
the narrow, crowded, public bench

on which we sat—as when my mate
comes home and leaves her tired, ur-
ban creature outside the door. We sang
tonight about a simple gift of myrrh.

Above a cold and remnant mist,
brilliant stars—unseen, unbidden--
blink and shuffle as Ave Maria signs
all we commoners suffer hidden:

our brightest fears, our darkest hopes.

Born St. Paul, Minnesota. Lived in jungles of Colombia, S.A., up to age twelve. BS Mathematics NCSU, MS Computer Science UNC, MBA UCLA, Certificate in Poetry UW. Honorman, U.S. Naval Submarine School. “SS” (Submarine Service) qualified. Vietnam Service Medal. Honorable Discharge. Whiting Foundation Experimental Grant. P&W's Directory of Poets and Writers. Member IEEE, AAAS, AAP. The Boeing Company. Does not subscribe to the cattle-prod paradigm of poetry. May tend to melancholy.
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  • 2021 Feb Folio
    • 2021 Feb Folio Masthead
  • About
  • Feral Parrot : The Blog
  • Submissions
  • Black Lives Matter
  • Awards & Prizes
    • Handley Award Winners
    • 2019 Inscape Editor's Prizes
  • PCC Inscape Instagram
  • STAFF
    • Fall 2020 STAFF Q&A
    • staff-SPRING 2019
    • Staff-FALL 2019
    • Staff-SPRING 2018
    • Staff -FALL 2018
    • Staff -FALL 2017
  • Interviews
    • INT - Adrian Cepeda Poet of the Year 2019
    • INT-Visiting Writer Wendy Adamson FA2019
  • ONLINE ARCHIVE
    • 2020 Summer Folio
    • 2020 February Folio
    • 2019 Fall Folio
    • Celebrating Dia De Los Muertos
    • Issue On-7 2019SPR Mental Health Companion >
      • Issue Intro
    • ISSUE ON-6 2018FA Frankenstein Companion
    • Issue On-5 - 2018Su
    • Issue On-4 2018FA Spirituality
    • Issue ON-3 2017FA
    • Issue On-2 2016SPR
    • Issue ON-1 2016FA
    • Folio 2 - Moon Moon 2019
    • Folio 1 - Vote - 2018
  • PRINT ARCHIVE
    • Fall 2018 Print Issue - Frankenstein TOC
    • Fall 2017 Print Issue - Manifesto TOC