On a Theme by Thomas Merton, by Denise Levertov

Lent, Day 4

'Adam, where are you?'
God's hands
palpate darkness, the void
that is Adam's inattention,
his confused attention to everything,
impassioned by multiplicity, his despair.

Multiplicity, his despair;
God's hands
enacting blindness. Like a child
at a barbaric fairground -
noise, lights, the violent odours -
Adam fragments himself. The whirling rides!

Fragmented Adam stares.
God's hands
unseen, the whirling rides
dazzle, the lights blind him. Fragmented,
he is not present to himself. God
suffers the void that is his absence.

"God's hands" (male AND female, as in Rembrandt's The Prodigal Son painting) highlighted by their position in each stanza (should be indented, but can't get it to stay that way on Blip) - though unseen to Adam, still the crucial factor. And it is God, not the fragmented human, who suffers most from the broken relationship.

Went on a visit to the Birmingham Central Mosque today - the Iman who talked to us and showed us round seemed a gentle, loving man. On Fridays, they usually get over 4000 worshippers.