Suspended

I don’t seem to be coming up with anything to post lately excepting poetry. But the other day when I came upon the CPX selection of poetry, I was captured by the poem Suspended, by Denise Levertov (though there are also some favourites in there from George Herbert, John Donne, Gerard Manley-Hopkins, TS Eliot). I am rather partial to remembering the verse from Deuteronomy 33:37 myself, which says:

The eternal God is your dwelling place,

and underneath are the everlasting arms.

so I was especially taken with that reference.

I also appreciated Simon Smart’s introduction to the poem, so perhaps I shall copy it here. (I do appreciate those with the security to acknowledge what's difficult in this road we walk, yet remain unwaveringly steadfast all the same.)

I once heard someone describe Christian ‘Joy’ as “a defiant nevertheless“. Profound hope in the face of life’s all too real and present tragedies, disappointments and sorrows. This poem by Denise Levertov seems to connect with something along those lines and I find it very moving. Many believers describe the Christian journey as experiencing the ‘absence’ of God as much as his presence. And yet, the same people often attest to a deep sense that, even in their darkest moments, God has not let them go.

Picture from here.

Suspended

- Denise Levertov

I had grasped God's garment in the void

But my hand slipped

On the rich silk of it.

The 'everlasting arms' my sister loved to remember

Must have upheld my leaden weight

From falling, even so,

For though I claw at empty air and feel

Nothing, no embrace,

I have not plummeted.