Jan 4, 2013 | Bible Story, Gus Stevens, Quatrains, Rhymed Couplets, The Unspeakable Name vol. 1
“You must leave your land, your gods. Take flight.” The Voice was so unyielding, so obscure. How could he trust that whisper in the night beckoning the patriarch from his home in Ur? At the dead end of his doubts he could not— and perhaps it was only...
Apr 17, 2012 | Bible Story, Gus Stevens, Rhymed Couplets, The Unspeakable Name vol. 1
Before the earth was swallowed up in sea Noah barred the doors and all skies darkened grey, for once the gate was shut, he heard no beggar’s plea; to flinch at life’s last moment could not the hammer stay. Did he hear their clawing hands in his dreams? The...
Jan 10, 2012 | Bible Story, Gus Stevens, Hymn, Luke Schreiber, Song
I envy the broad swath of humanity that is able to clap and sing at the same time. Either activity I can perform adequately, provided I am only responsible for one at a time. But the moment I attempt to peel off a chunk of my singing brain in order to direct it toward...
Dec 11, 2011 | Bible Story, Gus Stevens, Sonnet, The Unspeakable Name vol. 1, Victorian Sonnet
The mistreated Earth in her heartache sings love songs to Life but shares her bed with Grave. Hers is a marriage of our making; our hands pressed her to become another’s slave just as Michal, the daughter of King Saul, was given once by will and once by force,...
Dec 3, 2011 | Bible Story, Gus Stevens, Sonnet, The Unspeakable Name vol. 1, Victorian Sonnet
“But, my Lord, who will I say has sent me?” asked shoe-less Moses on his holy plot, expecting an answer from the burning tree. But the cloaking, indirect “I Am” is not a name but a refusal to be named— words that reveal as much as they...
Nov 7, 2011 | Bible Story, Gus Stevens, Quatrains, The Unspeakable Name vol. 2
Amnon held his desired to the bed and, famished, smiled as he ravished the prey. Then he sickened like a man overfed; the flesh he sought, consumed, stank of decay. Absalom smiled too as he avenged the rape. But even the pleasures of revenge take flight; once the trap...
