{"id":77232,"date":"1993-04-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1993-04-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/article\/unholy-sonnets\/"},"modified":"2024-03-22T08:42:46","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T12:42:46","slug":"unholy-sonnets","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/newcriterion.com\/article\/unholy-sonnets\/","title":{"rendered":"Unholy sonnets"},"content":{"rendered":"

I<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Hands folded to construct a church and steeple,
\nA roof of knuckles, outer walls of skin,
\nThe thumbs as doors, the fingers bent within
\nTo be revealed, wriggling, as \u201call the people,\u201d
\nAll eight of them, enmeshed, caught by surprise,
\nTurned upward blushing in the sudden light,
\nThe nails like welders\u2019 masks, the fit so tight
\nAmong them you can hear their half-choked cries
\nTo be released, to be pried from this mess
\nThey\u2019re soldered into somehow\u2014they don\u2019t know.
\nBut stuck now they are willing to confess,
\nIf that will ease your grip and let them go,
\nConfess the terror they cannot withstand
\nIs being locked inside another hand.<\/p>\n

II<\/span>.<\/p>\n

After the praying, after the hymn-singing,
\nAfter the sermon\u2019s trenchant commentary
\nOn the world\u2019s ills, which make ours secondary,
\nAfter communion, after the hand-wringing,
\nAnd after peace descends upon us, bringing
\nOur eyes up to regard the sanctuary
\nAnd how the light swords through it, and how, scary
\nIn their sheer numbers, motes of dust ride, clinging\u2014
\nThere is, as doctors say about some pain,
\nDiscomfort knowing that despite your prayers,
\nYour listening and rejoicing, your small part
\nIn this communal stab at coming clean,
\nThere is one stubborn remnant of your cares
\nIntact. There is still murder in your heart.<\/p>\n

III<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Two forces rule the universe of breath
\nAnd one is gravity and one is light.
\nAnd does their jurisdiction include death?
\nDoes nothingness exist in its own right?
\nIt\u2019s hard to say, lying awake at night,
\nFull of an inner weight, a glaring dread,
\nAnd feeling that Simone Weil must be right.
\nTwo forces rule the universe, she said,
\nAnd they are light and gravity. And dead,
\nShe knows, as you and I do not, if death
\nIs also ruled or if it rules instead,
\nAnd if it matters, after your last breath.
\nBut she said truth was on the side of death
\nAnd thought God\u2019s grace filled emptiness, like breath.<\/p>\n

IV<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Time to admit my altar is a desk.
\nTime to confess the cross I bear a pen.
\nMy soul, a little like a compact disc,
\nSlides into place, a laser plays upon
\nIts surface, and a sentimental mist,
\nFreaked with the colors of church window glass,
\nRides down a shaft of light that smells of must
\nAs music adds a layer of high gloss.
\nTime to say plainly when I am alone
\nAnd waiting for the coming of the ghost
\nWhose flame-tongue like a blow torch, sharp and lean,
\nWrites things that no one ever could have guessed,
\nI give in to my habit and my vice
\nAnd speak as soon as I can find a voice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1592,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tags":[660],"department_id":[554],"issue":[3179],"section":[],"acf":{"participants":{"simple_value_formatted":"","value_formatted":null,"value":null,"field":{"ID":0,"key":"field_65fd9fbaa0408","label":"Authors","name":"participants","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"user","value":null,"menu_order":0,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":"group_647e2b3c6941d","wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"role":"","return_format":"array","multiple":1,"allow_null":0,"bidirectional":0,"bidirectional_target":[],"_name":"participants","_valid":1}},"page_number":{"simple_value_formatted":40,"value_formatted":40,"value":"40","field":{"ID":0,"key":"field_647e2bc0c860c","label":"Page 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