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Psalm 18

by Mark C. Watney

The heavens blazon    God’s beauty And his hand-work[1]   un-ravels the sky Day cries out    wonders to day And night whispers   wisdom to night

There is no folk[2]    nor man-tongue Which cannot hear   God’s Heaven-hum Which thrums   through all the Earth And word-wails   across all whale-roads

God timbers    his temple[3] in the sun which rises from   the morning-sea Like a bride-groom[4]    from his groom-room[5] or like a giant    galloping up heaven’s spire then girdling back downward   to the deep No man can hide   from its heat God’s runes are right   reeling in man’s mind binding his soul to truth   and his heart to bliss God’s rule brings light   to the eyes of body and soul

 

[1] hand-geweore [2] folc [3] Timbrede his templ [4] Bryd-guma [5] Bryd-bure

About Mark C Watney’s Anglo-Saxon Psalms (In Old English Alliterative Verse) These psalms are inspired by my reading of the 11th century Old English Psalter. They are not translations, but rather, an attempt to re-capture the bold alliterative echoes found between the first and second half of each line of poetry. I have also tried to reproduce some of the “kennings” (compound words with which the Anglo Saxons loved to create new and blended images). Some of these kennings are footnoted back to the original Old English. Others I have created myself.

 

Mark Watney’s first poem was about a snail, published in a 1976 anthology of the best high school poetry in South Africa. Four decades later he published a 2nd poem– at the age of 56. And now, at age 60, he hopes to be finally hitting his stride. He says his brain is slowing down, yet seems to have finally acquired a certain poetic sensibility–perhaps as a consolation in old age. Mark is a professor of English at Sterling College, Kansas. Publications since turning 56: Dappled Things (First place, 2018 Jacques Maritain Prize for Nonfiction), Avatar Literary Review, Saint Katherine Review, The Other Journal, Presence, Cider Press Review (forthcoming), and Acumen (short-listed).

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