The Ninth Lesson
(The Gospel of St. John 1:1-14)
What is it in these words
that brushes centuries of science
aside, to reach the heart?
How does St John’s ‘true Light’,
sustained through distance,
changing tongues, and years
of tarnishing by priest and prince,
trump our Enlightenment?
It’s safe, familiar: virgin birth,
the forty days of wilderness,
the water into wine, King James’s
scholars’ pace and poetry.
We heard it in our childhood choirs
and hear its echoes everywhere
in poems, politics, TV;
it may be coded in our genes.
But take away the magical
and listen closely: safety disappears.
We’re on the edge, unconfident
of what we knew, our candle almost
cancelled by a darkness glimpsed
but too complete to comprehend;
a darkness we’re compelled,
and afraid, to explore.
Phil Vernon lives in Kent. He returned to the UK in 2004 after spending two decades in different parts of Africa. He recently retired after many years in the international humanitarian and peacebuilding field. His version of the mediaeval hymn Stabat Mater with music by Nicola Burnett Smith has been performed internationally. His most recent publications were Foreshadowing, a micro-pamphlet based on the life of Martin Luther (Hedgehog Poetry Press, 2024), and his third full collection Guerrilla Country (Flight of the Dragonfly Press, 2024), which brought together his interest in landscape, peace and conflict. www.philvernon.net
Amethyst Review 