GREAT CHAIN

Arts and Culture

Jul 2

Written By Zane Johnson

Come and see: yes, there
is the earth and there
the stone, there the stone
the splendorous man carries.

Stone he lies down
to river, and river to sea,
if only at another end,
downwind, to meet

a broken me, casting for
his name in sand after sand,
in ancient shattered stone,
until he lifts stone up again.

The heart is only a stone until,
pressed beneath its side
of shadow, it encounters the eventide fire which burns

between two ends of river,
the broken heart inside
its own that warms
all stone to glory.

July 2020

Zane Johnson

Zane is a freelance writer, editor, and translator. He recently completed an M.A. in English literature, for which he studied the intersection between the religious poetry of the seventeenth century and early modern ecology. Recent articles, translations, and creative writing can be found in Quest, Seeing the Woods, Asymptote, The American Journal of Poetry, and elsewhere. He currently lives in Denver, CO where he practices Centering Prayer and studies the Christian contemplative tradition.

GREAT CHAIN

LET EVERY THING THAT HATH BREATH

JUSTICE AS THE WORK OF THE CHURCH