The earth trembles, heavens open,
announces the ancient priest poised
in wonder on the bank of the Chebar,
land of the Chaldeans, fifth year of
King Jehoiachin’s exile. On the north
wind there comes a great cloud of fire
flashing amber flames, and from the
flames emerge four creatures in human
shape, says the priest, and each wears
four faces: face of a man and a lion
and an ox and the visage of an eagle.
Each of the creatures has four wings
and the sole of each creature’s foot
is likened to a calf’s hoof, which, says
the priest, sparkles as burnished bronze,
and under the wings, joined one to the other,
are the hands of a man, and when the wings
stretch for the stars, the creatures appear
as torches. In metaphoric confusion the
priest sees the strange device turn not but
move up and down among the four living
creatures; in dazzling fire bolts of lightning.
Bewildered the priest observes the thing
place a wheel upon the earth by the creatures
with four faces, and other wheels evolve in
a brilliant bluish green metal like aluminum,
the mechanism, a wheel within a wheel,
the meshing of gears, the mechanism
possessing moving rings lined with eyes;
the fiery metallic thing begins to rise,
and the living creatures are lifted from the
earth, says the priest, and the burnished feet
withdraw into the thing: an unthinkable sight
impossible to relate coherently for it seems
the spirits of the living creatures encircle
the priest as celestial spheres, and these go as
those go, and these stand as those stand,
babbles the priest, seeking words for wordless
acts as the creatures rise into the cloud of
amber flames, and the priest watches the
apparatus hover in midair.
Above the heads of the living creatures,
cries the priest, there is a platform the color
of gleaming crystal, and beneath the platform
the wings move straight, one toward the other,
the wheels animated by the spirits of the living
creatures, and when they depart there is
the sound of wings and great waters, and
says the priest, the voice of the Almighty!
A sapphire throne appears, and seated
upon the throne a man the image of
the ancient sky god engulfed in amber flames,
a halo around him the radiance of a rainbow,
and when the priest falls upon his knees,
a voice says, Son of Man stand upon thy feet,
and a creature extends to him a scroll
describing all manner of earthly behavior
displeasing to the fiery form, and again the priest
hears the wings, the wheels, the noise of great
rushing, and this thing, this being which the
priest now calls an angel elevates him and tours
the worldly circumstances which have angered
the living creatures, and the priest is at once
between earth and heaven, and knowing not
what to make of it, he calls it the glory of God.
Though one day a NASA research engineer
will analyze Ezekiel’s vision and proclaim it
technically a manned spacecraft linked
to a command module orbiting the earth.
In biblical times it was as easy to mistake
the unknown for a fiery angel as it is today
to dismiss it as a meteor or weather balloon.
Share
Print
Save
Follow
Module, ballooon or angel, it's still the wonder of it all - in any age, setting or stage of knowledge - that puzzles, inspires and (GOd forbid, though I don;t think He does!), entertains. You manage all those pespectives in imaginative lines. Finish your poem, and there's plenty of afterglow to remind that it.s really not over. A vivid contribution!
Charlie
(((HUGS))) and much love, your friend in Tx., Karen Lynn. :D
Blessings, Carole~
Cheers,
Dan
Love,
Sage
Regis
John