Rocking Like It's All Intermezzo

Twenty-first-Century Psalm Responsorials

Maryanne Hannan

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781532691935, 9781532691942
• eBook ISBN: 9781532691959
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Religious Poetry
• Index: Literature

What does it mean that the Psalms are the prayer book of the people? Rocking Like It's All Intermezzo: Twenty-first-Century Psalm Responsorials is one such person's prayer book. Using familiar refrains as their starting points, the poems attempt a balance between how the psalmist understood God's faithfulness and how the poet's lived experience requires revised understanding in some places, renewed commitment in others. In addition to an insightful foreword by acclaimed poet Sofia M. Starnes, these sixty-four poems tell of an intimate, honest reorientation to God's promises.

I.

Understanding

I am thy servant; give me understanding

—Psalm 119. 125

I say to You, my God and Savior,

I know Your trick—

this holographic mystery place of ours,

the mind-mauling cloud where I lose my daily way

this devious underpinning of my ever fuzzy

stumble through the universe

never got its own day of creation.

Time—You made it first and mum’s the word,

while seven days of creation-dazzle follow easy,

all rabbits in a hat of wild wizard revelry.

Time

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom

—Psalm 90. 12

No coincidence

that we are born

into piecemeal,

whacked-out time.

We relish talk of eternity,

our momentary glimpses

of the Real,

but nothing suits us

better than time,

sliced, slivered

infinitesimal bites—

nitty gritty bits

the what happened.

The Created

It is He that hath made us

—Psalm 100. 3

Suppose we take this

as a given, Lord:

You made us.

Then we wonder

once made, are we as

dust mites, incandescent,

flaming brief existence,

to be swept away,

when our cycle is suspended?

No, divinity itself we bear

sometimes hidden, smoldering

in service of our spark,

sometimes out there, blazing

in our remarkably

sinewed frame.

Clearing the Abyss

Happy shalt thou be

—Psalm 128. 2

A puffball of a thousand seeds,

the dandelioning ways of unhappy.

No surprise. And yet not eternity’s

promise. Now. We’ll be happy now.

How much must be undone? How

ma...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Marvelous
• Part I
• Part II
• Part III
• Part IV
• Acknowledgments