Psalm 95

By Edward Clarke on July 1, 2018 Poetry, Uncategorized

               While someone exhorts us
               In song to sing to God,
	I've looked askance and asked, is he
               Among us here or not?
And found that question, off its no-man's land
               Uptaken then in hand,

               Lies with sheep in shade,
               And takes its rest in space,
           Beneath a large-leafed chestnut, bright
               With burning candles, placed
At intervals upon it, by that same hand,
               Which forms from sea dry land.

               Can it be we have
               A second chance of rest?
        I labour to hear a voice whose sworn
               Obscurity you blessed,
Like a bright cloud above unharvested grain,
               A clear heat after rain.

Edward Clarke’s latest book is called The Vagabond Spirit of Poetry.

Featured Image: Daniele Idini.

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About Author

Edward Clarke

Edward Clarke’s Eighteen Psalms was published by Periplum Poetry in 2018. Clarke’s Psalter, a documentary he presented about making these poems, was broadcast on BBC, Radio 4 in September 2018. He is also the author of two books of criticism, The Vagabond Spirit of Poetry (Iff Books 2014), which makes claims for the efficacy of poetry in our industrialized world, where we are presented with environmental, political and economic challenges, and The Later Affluence of W.B. Yeats and Wallace Stevens (Palgrave Macmillan 2012). He has an MA (Oxon) in English Language and Literature and was awarded a PhD by Trinity College, Dublin, for his work on the American poet, Wallace Stevens, in relation to Shakespeare, Milton, and various Romantic poets. He currently teaches English literature and art and architectural history at Oxford University.