Invocation
Lift up these leaden eyes that slumber still,
Cocooned within undreaming restless dark.
Celestial Sun, burn through the fleshy veil;
Unclose the lid where vision’s hid, and fill
These eyes with sight! Come fan my little spark
Of holy wonder, lest it prove to fail;
Inflame in me the fire of Love’s own light.
Sweet breath of God exhaled beyond the bounds
Of time and space, sweet strain of heaven-song,
Inspire my soul’s profundities; rewrite
My inner strain until my self resounds
With heaven sung—breathed for earth’s breathless throng.
Uplifted by your voiced and echoed thrill,
Teach me, oh Lord, to see and do your will.
D.R. Rainbolt is a native of Northwest Louisiana, where he works in the supply chain industry. Some of his works have appeared in Ouachita Life Magazine, American First Magazine, and Vita Latina Magazine.
Lovely! The language sounds Rilke-esque to me — there’s something in the internal rhyme of “Unclose the lid where vision’s hid,” followed by the actual end-rhyme of “fill,” or the suspension of “rewrite” at the end of line 10 despite it being the sudden start of a new clause. The poem doesn’t feel as laborious as sonnets usually do to me, maybe because you break the movement up with a non-standard 7-5 split in the lines. The actual rhymes keep going pleasingly with the abc pattern. And I love the final two lines. Encore!