A Poem {My God, My Bright Abyss}

My God my bright abyss

into which all my longing will not go

once more I come to the edge of all I know

and believing nothing believe in this:

Love will heal the wounds

of this mortal life's stains

And bring me home again

To the communion of family and home

Oh love wilt thou finish

the wars and slights of men?

Wilt thou bring to light the truth

Of our former souls' ascension:

Into the abyss of brutality?

Into the shredding of heart?

Into the place where we mourn

and know what it's like to be apart?

God is this and has brought me to him

To see his nature

Her green and broken

Lush breathable truth

Believing nothing I know of love

My bright abyss may be here or above

It is the edge of all I know

But the future of what I hold

A Friday / Weekend Creative Activity

Finish the poem below 

This unfinished poem, MY GOD, MY BRIGHT ABYSS, was written by Christian Wiman (former editor of Poetry Magazine, and now a professor at Yale Divinity) who wrote an essay in the American Scholar and in his new book of essays, MY BRIGHT ABYSS: "And there the poem ends. Or fails, rather, for in the several years since I wrote that stanza I have been trying to feel my way - to will my way - into its ending. As if it weren't hard enough to articulate one's belief, I seem to have wanted to distill it into a single stanza."

So here is the challenge - take your stab at finishing this poem (and as I said, feel free to edit the original if you need to fit a word to rhyme or a thought). Good luck. I look forward to reading them.

My God my bright abyss
into which all my longing will not go
once more I come to the edge of all I know
and believing nothing believe in this: