Remix: Babbling On, Again, River

*Remix: Babbling On, Again, River

Down by the time-out-of-mind, parched riverbed of Babeled loss,
Endless deserts in the stream and all the oaks of Bashon felled;
Yes, we lay down and lamented, drowned in canyon-wasted grief.

By the rivers of Babylon we lay down and wept,
Down upon the wine-soaked, weeping streams,
Up on the willows there, we hung down our lamented lyres

We remembered childhood’s delightful savor, a songed psalm
There, despairing, amidst burned hulks of the cedars, gaunt, stickly,
Hanged like forsaken, wind-blown, broken guitars of skin and bones,

By the rivers of Babylon we lay down and wept,
Down upon the wine-soaked, weeping streams
Up on the willows there, we hung down our lamented lyres

Stringless, passed-over balladeers of rifting sorrow and regret;
Yet despite the worst woes, and the obscene curses of power
With no oaked help on to which to hang our emaciated hopes,

By the rivers of Babylon we lay down and wept,
Down upon the wine-soaked, weeping streams,
Up on the willows there, we hung down our lamented lyres

We still spoke--seraph-serenading a tender, riffed “Shalom,
Peace be on you,” amidst their ‘popular’ trees of derision,
Hates, and damns; yes, despite all to sheol, we blessed enemies;

By the rivers of Babylon we rose up and blessed,
Down upon the wine-soaked, redeeming streams,
Up on the willows there, we sung out our laurelled lyres

We chose to live transcendent, streaming in the River of Life,
And to ‘rock’ our foes’ crying infants to gentle, tender sleep,*
Cradled in the infinite love of God’s mighty-welling heart.

Up in that eternal river flowing out of the heart of God,
Up upon the milk and honey'd rejoicing stream of becoming,
Up on the eternal Tree of Life, we sang the glorious truth


*A Remix of Psalm 137:9

-Daniel Wilcox

First pub. in Eunoia Review
in different form


In the LIGHT,

Daniel Wilcox