Poems to God, No. 139

Such grotesque
grinding graces,
surreal decades
lost in the cosmos,
suffered endurance
impatient pain
terminally unique
facing despairing,
the hidden God
treading me up
in fiery waters
as I flailed down
into the dark,
brutal graces                       
as I died
a million times
before breathing
became intimations
& labored epiphanies,
absurd cryptic graces
buoyant & persevering
every time I drowned
& washed-up gratefully
alive on another beach.
​
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Alan Altany has BA & MA degrees in Catholic theology, and a Ph. D. in religious studies (University of Pittsburgh). He is a semi-retired, septuagenarian professor of Comparative Religions at a small college in Florida, USA.  He founded and edited a small magazine of poetry (The Beggar’s Bowl) and has published three books of poetry for in series, “Christian Poetry of the Sacred”:  A Beautiful Absurdity (2022), The Greatest Longing (2023), and Intimations (2024).  His poetry has been published by Tipton Poetry Journal, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Valley Voices, Sand Hill Literary Magazine, The Hong Kong Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Montreal Review, St. Austin Review, and others. Website:  https://www.alanaltany.com/.