Querencia

O Querencia, O mountain of heart’s desire,
Island in the West, the garden of eternity,
The mountain of God, the mountain that is the garden,
the garden that is the city, all its foundations laid in jewels – 
Agate, chrysoprase, lapis lazuli, jasper, emerald. 
Stones of fire, stones of living light.

Light from beyond the world, Light of the World, 
You have given us a city. A vision of the river, ever flowing, 
Ever clear, ever living. Fruit indescribable on branches ever-bearing, 
The healing leaves. Fish without number in the living river, 
All the birds of the world nested in the branches of the trees. 
What music must there be! 

The trees of that mountain are full of birds
Trees everblooming, growing tall 
On the mountain of his glory
While the miraculous little birds echo
Songs of self-forgetful praise, no sharp
Warnings of territorial ambition, calling
To each other to come and feed on eternal
Fruit, everlasting berries of delight
Seeds of never ending life, gathering 
Wind blown leaves for a nest, nesting
In his peace where no nest is needed.

Coming in the ever-dawn for living
Water and diamond gravel, grateful
For fields of wild strawberries
And rock-candy mountains, buttery
Hills, lakes of cream, all the foolish
Half-desires of long generations, now
Meaningful and fulfilled. No more
Crazed kings nesting in the trees, 
Wounded for watercress, hungry 
For human companionship.

Music of the wind in the healing leaves, 
Songs of birds never heard before, 
Over all the music of the river singing over rocks, singing in the Eternal light, singing in unison, in harmony, in counterpoint. 
No thirst, no hunger,
Tears wiped away, the stone of fear forever lifted, 
Scowling sun deprived of its daily tyranny, night gone,
Its terror departed, death no more. 
Death no more, no more, death shall be no more, 
Death you will die in the everlasting light,
The light that will never be overcome by the dark. 

No more dark waters, dark woods, dark thoughts, 
Darkness made obsolete in light corporeal. 
No punishment remaining, nothing accursed, 
All forever straight where you straighten, 
Curving where you make sinuous, 
All healed from disease, discomfort, disgust.

Different mountains, new mountains, peaks like star-points
Wing-edged ridges, whale-backed giant hills
Filled with cedar trees and birds, gems
Set in the mother rock, a mountain that is the city.
No crumbling bone-break talus, but pure
Crystalline blades of light, pink and green, 
Blue and white, streaked through with blood-red
Jasper. 

Marble from the vanished seas, each canyon
Filled with living springs, stone staircases hung with ferns
Timeless beauty, meadows of eternal blossoms. 
No rising sun, no setting moon, light as even 
As soft mornings in summer, light that soothes 
Time dazzled eyes, light that breaks the rocks.

Mountains of light, filled with living streams
Mountains of trees, filled with voices of strange birds
Mountains beyond time, filled with light unshadowed, holy
Mountains of God.

The mountain of the Lord
The mountain of God
The city that is the mountain.
Mountain full of angels, 
Mountain of cedars,
Filled with unknown colors,
Beauty unshakeable.

The mountain of the Lord is higher than the hills,
Lifted above all mountains, above the clouds.
Cascades of living light flow over living stones
Through shining canyons cleansed of tears,
City whose shadow is light, whose light is the Lamb.

Bring us to your city, your kingdom come,
Eternal praise to you,
The angels praise you, 
Holy One, raiser of mountains.
The stars sing your testimony,
Maker of the light. 

The trees in the middle of the River,
Praise you. Offer us their fruit, O Word.
The trees on the banks of the river, 
Praise you. Heal us with their leaves, Creator of the Vine.

Author: Duncan MacNae

Exiled Gael, scion of the Dust Bowl, dweller within Divine Grace, admirer of mountains, I have made my peace with trout and the starlings. Looking for a river and healing trees. duncanmacduncan5@gmail.com View all posts by Duncan MacNae