Friday, February 27, 2009

Quiros' vision, His hidalgo heart and Mythical Australia

From Peter Enns - my quote of the day (HT Ken Schenck)

We are in no position to declare what genres of literature the Spirit can or can’t use, and our theological comfort level is not a determining factor in how God elects to speak.
(Title from Terra Australis, words below by James McAuley - as set by Malcolm Williamson - Symphony for Voices)

Voyage within you on the fabled ocean
And you will find that southern continent
Quiros' vision, his hidalgo heart and
Mythical Australia where reside all things
In their imagined counterpart

It is your land of similes
The wattle scatters its pollen on the doubting heart
The flowers are wide awake
The air gives ease
There you come home

The magpies call you Jack
And whistle like larikins at you from the trees
There too the angophora preaches on the hillsides
With the gestures of Moses and the white cockatoo
Perch'd on his limbs screams with demoniac pain

And who shall say on what errand the insolent emu
Walks between morning and night on the edge of the plain?
But northward in the valley of the fiery goat,
Where the sun like a centaur vertically shoots his raging arrows with unerring aim,
Stand th’ecstatic solitary pyres of unknown lovers featureless with flame.

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