Immersion

Immersion
-denise levertov

there is anger abroad in the world, a numb thunder,
because of god's silence. but how naive,
to keep wanting words we could speak ourselves,
english, urdu, tagalong, the french of tours, the french of haiti...
yes, that was one way omnipotence chose
to address us-hebrew, aramaic, or whatever the patriarchs
chose in their turn to call what they heard. moses
demanded the word, spoken and written. but perfect freedeom
assured other ways of speech. God is surely
patiently trying to immerse us in a different language,
events of grace, Horrifying scrolls of history,
and the unearned retrieval of blessings lost forever,
the poor grass returning after drought, timid, persistent.
God's abstention is only from human dialects.
The holy voice utters its woe and glory in myriad musics, in signs and portents.

Our own words are for us to speak, a way to ask and to answer.