User:Joe Spencer/coveting: Negative Dialektik: OFFERENTIA PASTORIS

  coveting: Negative Dialektik: OFFERENTIA PASTORIS
  
  my pipe requires of me,
     as a worthy (double) sacrifice
  
  my lips
  
  to create the sound--
     ex nihilo--
  that is the ground
     in which lays grow;
  or: to bring forth,
     as if from womb,
  the south, the north,
     east, west, from gloom;
  hence: to form things
     that open wide
  the mouth that sings
     and truths who hide.
  but, since my lips are occupied,
  since they are taken by what brings
  the song about, it is their doom
  to leave forever all the worth
  that on them singing would bestow:
  only pursed my lips are found
  
  my hands
  
  to wield the shaft
     to break the soil,
  so planted aft
     to summon toil;
  or: to take rod
     to bruise the back;
  this compass odd
     there inscribes lack;
  hence: to work song
     as circle closed,
  and hands that long
     as round composed.
  but, since my hands are presupposed
  elsewhere to be, though they be strong
  for holes I fill and dams I crack,
  they never will hands of a god
  become (though not for lack of oil):
  unjoined where those who dance have laughed
  
  --though piping I am slave,
  the song and dance I crave
  in turn is bound to me:
  in me what comes to be
  is all I want, which is to hide
  my fleshy face, to crawl inside
  again the womb, and so to be
  χώρα?  χoρός?  unknown to me 
  
  O that I were an angel!

• The scripture that inspired this poem: Alma 29:1.