Confessions

Despise all of my qualities
Don’t consider my ambitions.
I’m not small enough to own them:
Too important in my own eyes.
Look away from me with laurels,
In praise, I see traps for tripping!
I’ve learned to hate my own ascents
And take no heed of my glories.
I smell the hunt that I once loved
I sense the lure of its prestige.

:Yet who should take the honor now?
I am the slave of nothingness.
There is no name for me this day.
I must forsake both name and soul!
What I am, is what they’ll call me,
One in the same: nothing at all.
Self-conceit is a bitter draught;
Its sobriety is cruel.
Yet clarity is a mirror,
Showing all my journeys: fatal!

Yet for the keeping hand of Christ,
My wayward tread would find no path.
But now in keeping with his steps
I fly out, as if with eagles.
I cannot speak, for joy has me.
There are no teachings on my tongue!
Who am I to speak of wisdom?
When all my good is come of God?
But if I live, I live for praise:
To empty my own self, of names.

To set my eyes above my graves
And glimpse the star of Bethlehem.
Do away with all this rubble,
Return me to the ancient ways:
Recall the one lord who saves souls
Who is, himself, ancient of days!
Give up your words, lift all above
Forsake all things.  Lose your façade.
So, for myself, I unmask love…
To find one Way, one Christ, one God.

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