NATURAL SPEECH

Arts and Culture
Written By Chris Cocca

Photo by Torsten Dederichs on Unsplash. Image description: a sliver of a boat can be seen on the far left, next to a wave crashing on a tossing sea. White-crested mountains in the distance.

That natural speech, in English, says “I am”

but Hebrew, less precise, reveals the Name

(and Milton’s Christmas visions do the same)

already, wolf and lion lay with lamb?

Now, Brathwaithe said the cadence of the ram

is Mother Tongue refusing to be tame

the natural speech of cresting hurricane

where Peter tried to walk but Jonah swam.

And can these jet stream rhythms finally speak

as windless sail collapsing every tense?

What profit can we take from reasoned rhyme?

What news on wing, or sung from sandy beak?

What temple measures weighing out offense?

What temporal beats come close to holy time?

Chris Cocca

Chris Cocca is a poet and essayist whose work explores faith, labor, place, and the moral weight of ordinary life. He serves as a pastor in the United Church of Christ in eastern Pennsylvania and holds an MFA from The New School and a Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School. His poems have appeared in The Shore, Appalachian Review, Belt Magazine, and elsewhere; his work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

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CONFLICT: JESUS IN OUR MIDST