When The Tradition Began

by CWK

The tradition began... it began, when?

I saw Him on a verdant hillside amidst primroses

on a mount in Galilee.

And the flowers were nature’s,

but it was Nature’s Flower,

that so appealed to me.

I will never forget those words;

there was springtime in my psyche.

Ground that had long lain uninterred

received a shower which at first disturbed,

and then suddenly revived me.

The wind caught the words of The Flower,

and the ovulets were carried aloft into my heart.

And my fragile disposition, so dower,

was at once sown together and torn apart.

And thence the soil was saturated,

and there settled a dilemma I’d debated:

for beauty and truth for once strangely met

(til then two enemies in a maelstrom of regret).

And His words were embedded deep: deeper than I remember,

deeper than I can forget.

You could say the traditioning began

with words (and words, and words)

and words whispered again (and again).

It was verbal traditioning. Well, yes.

But to say that it was simply verbal is amiss.

It was more than verbs:

less like speech, more like a kiss.

These were touching words; perhaps not tactful, but tactile.

These were warring words, and they cut deep into my guile.

And at these words we lived,

and by these words we yet thrive.

We repeat them oft, but slow and soft –

for their Speaker is alive.