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Black Holes
Some say the universe is full of holes
That suck in all that is. At warp-speed, gone.
One wonders where was space-time goes. Like souls,
perhaps, through portals to some wide-eyed dawn.
Or through a trap door dumped below death’s hell
No speck escapes, no world, no life, no droid
Or god or mystic mage that casts this spell
That populates the mechanistic void.
Some hope light’s washed-out ash at least sifts back
As junk recycled, slough repurposed, light
Reborn as infant stars pushed through a crack.
Here, even zero names a something, right?
If part of us escapes black’s undertow
We’ll never know. Or will we, do we, though?
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The Temple
The priest shoves past the blasted temple door
Behind which cinders camouflage the dead
Who last night bought his peace, his wine-soaked bread,
But now sought refuge from a raging war.
Which oligarch of church and state keeps score
With holy battle’s chalked up corpses fed
Jihad, Crusade, or Pogrom? Whose wars spread
Through fire, through blood-blessed sacrifice? All pour
Through mothers’ hands blind faith consumed with hate
That consecrates the kill. Each lie collides
With its competing sacred lie to sate
Deep greed that thrives on strapped-on suicides
Exploding altars to its foe’s estate,
Ensuring God’s eternal will abides.
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Beth Houston has taught writing at ten universities and colleges in California and Florida. She has published a couple hundred poems in dozens of literary journals. She edits the Extreme formal poetry anthologies. www.bethhouston.com
Two very nice sonnets, and in perfectly regular meter, as we would naturally expect from Beth Houston.
“Black Holes” presents a series of observations and speculations on a still very mysterious subject. The sestet is especially effective, since it presents possibilities and unanswered questions in a way that provokes further thought on the matter, rather than merely giving the speaker’s opinions.
I find “The Temple” somewhat more difficult to unravel completely, though much of the sonnet is clear. The first quatrain, as I understand it, presents a priest entering (or leaving?) a war-wrecked temple in which there are corpses of those of his congregation who had entered the place as sanctuary from violence. The second quatrain rhetorically asks for the identification of whatever forces of authority–church or state–brought about these deaths.
The sestet gives us the speaker’s view, which is that the competing lies and greed of different belligerents, using “blood-blessed sacrifice” and “blind faith,” have brought about this mayhem and destruction. The hate generated by this propaganda passes through “mothers’ hands” to their children. The words “strapped-on suicides” seems to suggest suicide bombers who kill themselves by strapping explosives to their bodies, perhaps in a temple or at an altar of the enemy.
The last line is, in my view, deeply sarcastic, expressing the opinion given by such bombers (on whatever side they may be on) that they are doing “God’s eternal will.”
Joseph, I appreciate your insightful comments.
I don’t really like to discuss my own poems: Why rob the reader of the pleasure (and pain?) of interpretation? But I will make a few points.
The poem says “church and state,” not “church or state.”
The priest shoves “past” the blasted (damaged) door from the outside. Behind (from the priest’s viewpoint) the door are dead people—not necessarily of his congregation, perhaps many, perhaps few—that have come there specifically for refuge and that the previous night had sought peace (etc.) from the priest, whether during an evening service or privately.
Perhaps that helps. Thanks for your perspective!
‘Black Holes’ is a pretty amazing piece of work, Beth. I felt like I was watching the astronaut in ‘Interstellar’ trying to communicate with his daughter between dimensions. Like the mentioned film, spellbinding and more accessible and revealing on a second and third viewings.
“One wonders where ‘was’ space-time goes.” That’s about my favourite line – it’s both profound and thought-provoking!
The Temple is a phenomenal poem. That “…church and state keeps score / With holy battle’s chalked up corpses fed” is so relevant today, as it was in the Middle Ages and onwards with history’s ‘Jihad, Crusade, or Pogrom’. Just look at what’s going on in the Middle East, in Eastern Europe (Putin claiming to be on an anti-Nazification crusade) and, strangely, the resurgence of ‘taking the cross’ in England, purportedly for patriotic/nationalistic rather than religious reasons.
I was particularly taken by the line, ‘Each lie collides / With its competing sacred lie’ (to justify intolerance) and by the irony of the final line.
These are two complex poems that beg to be reread and examined both in the light of history and current events.
Brilliant stuff, Beth.
Paul, thanks for the feedback. That’s a clever connection between “Black Holes” and Interstellar!
Yes, the oligarchy’s exploitation of church/state is so historically ubiquitous that it almost seems to be ingrained in our DNA. I don’t think it is, though. (I’m writing more sonnets on this theme.)
I greatly appreciate your appreciation. All the best.
These poems both blew me away! I reserve the right to comment more fully after I have read each of them several times more, as they both require and deserve. Thank you for sharing them with us.
Russel, I’m delighted that these poems resonated. Like any poet, I’d love for you to “comment more fully.”
Beth, it’s great to see you here with two admirably wrought, thought-provoking sonnets. “The Temple” is my favorite of the two, and particularly powerful in its striking imagery and entanglement of religion, violence, and political power. To me, it appears to highlight the corruption of faith by greed and ideology. The allusions to crusades, jihads, and pogroms lend it historical grounding, while at the same time, speaking to the tragic events of today’s world. To me “The Temple” reads as a lament and a scorching indictment of humanity’s repeated cycles of sanctified violence and the words haunt me… all down to your magical touch. Both poems leave me with many unanswered questions, and for a woman of immense curiosity, that’s a good thing. Thank you!
Susan, great to see you here, too. Thanks for your thoughtful comments—which of course I would expect of you.
I appreciate your use of words like entanglement, corruption, tragic, violence. This dark side is a perpetual aspect of the world we live in–so far. I’m hopeful (perhaps misguidedly) that we can collectively progress beyond the seductions of greed, hubris, and meanspiritedness.
Here’s to change! Cheers.