A Path Through . . .

( Photography by Elshad Aliyev - found here ) Give me dread. Give me waves that rear and crash In endless tides upon the sea. Give me thrashing of thunder, And the dizzying gape of the precipice. Do we not need sublimity To know our own abasement? Vaster than the plane of sky, More ancient than deep-hidden stones, You are . Far better I To cow’r and quake at the might of your hand, Lest I drift towards some doom Indifferent. So Lord, give me dread, let me tremble! Strike me dumb and my soul will know song. As stars still beam before our eyes A thousand years since their demise, I beg you, sear me— I will burn. ~Mary Virginia Vietor