March 13: Attempting Praise, Psalm 5, Saint Leander of Seville

Well, my last few psalms have been lacking in the "praise" a little bit, and I extend my apologies for that.  I am trying to focus on the positive.  I really am.  However, this weekend, with the events in Japan, my mood has slipped toward reflective, even melancholy.  I will try to remedy that situation in the next few poems. 

Leander, today's saint, didn't have too many problems with melancholy.  He was too damn busy.  Born in Cartagena, Spain, in the sixth century, Leander had parents who were renowned for their holiness.  He had two brothers and a sister.  All of them are saints.  Talk about good breeding.  Leander's life mission was to turn Spain away from a heresy that was sweeping the country.  He did it, of course.  His biography concludes, "Worn out by his many activities in the cause of Christ, Leander died around the year 600..."  In comparison to Leander's troubles (which included a few years in exile), my little struggle with sadness is about as significant as a batch of limp fries at McDonald's.

So, this is the psalm for today.  It is, again, about the situation in Japan.  Forgive Saint Marty.  Sometimes, praise comes hard for him in the face of so much human tragedy.

Nuclear Reactor in Japan

Psalm 5:  Morning Meltdown Meditation

In fire and water, morning dawns
On the reactor.  The core heats.  Atoms
Spin, bounce, combine, repel into energy
On the brink of control, a stampede toward
Oblivion, toward an Easter where East meets
West, land meets sea, past meets future,
God meets man in a garden, at a tomb
Where a body is missing, like thousands,
Gone in a swell of mud, avalanche tectonic
Beneath the Pacific, rift in the veil
Of the ocean fault, so many voices lifted
In a single cry, "My God, my God, why?"
That the words rise, fill the clouds with nuclear
Rain, lamentations for the wings of angels
To descend, flutter uranium, plutonium
Into a state of peace, redemption
As simple as a child's prayer, whispered
Under the rubble of a school playground,
Calling friends out of hide-and-seek
To fill the air with birthday balloons,
Psalms of olly olly oxen free.