SO GRANDIOSE

Has one ever seen
Has anyone reported
Has mind ever conceived
Have senses ever perceived
The complete and utter ENTHRALLMENT
When in the REGAL presence of
The religiously GRANDIOSE
How energizing- nay MESMERIZING
OVERWHELMING in hushed wonder
Leaves nothing to do but to bow down low
And accept and believe and be TRANSFIXED
At the UNIVERSAL and sprawling EXTRAVAGANCE
Such as that City upon Rome’s VATICAN HILL
Its SOARING Gothic CATHEDRALS appeal
Full of impossibly BEAUTIFULLY painted
Ceilings full of RENAISSANCE art
And EXQUISITELY carved statue SAINTS
Its CAVERNOUS halls smokily aglow
Its candles and burning incense
Highlighting its GOLD utensils
Held by SUMPTUOUSLY frocked
And facetiously CHANTING PRIESTS
Guarded by their Swiss mercenaries
Who in their clownish suits of armor
Nobly vow to shield the MEGALOMANIC POPE
The heir of ST. PETER of course
As well as God’s HEAVENLY THRONE!

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But behind it in the valleys
And upon the greening hillsides
A stolid solitary man rides a burro
And gently shepherds his growing herd
of content and compliant sheep

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Or such as in India what a MARVEL
Lo, another DIVINE EDIFICE so STELLAR
Blinds in its REFLECTED GLOW from the sun
And aptly called THE GOLDEN TEMPLE
Its top floors are covered to its SPIRES
In sparkling GEMSTONES and purest GOLD
Even some nations are not worth its weight
How it AWES the poor and rich believers alike
Who bring their hopes with their alms
And heap on more TREASURE in TRIBUTE

To each Guru’s gleeful delight!

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Beneath its refracted rays however
The stoic man calls to water his sheep
And they follow securely his threading path
Through the ‘wolves’ and the scared teeming masses
Who are barely aware of their own unslaked thirst

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How BEDAZZLING is ‘Mecca’-
The virtual ‘GATE OF HEAVEN’ above
In the Arabian deserts of Paran
Where the KAABA—The CUBE—
SOARS BLACK against the WHITE
Built as it is upon Ishmael’s sandy city
To whom an angel bestowed a Black Stone
(‘Fallen white from heaven’ he was told
‘But turned black with man’s sins’)
Later Mohammed said Allah had revealed
It to be The CUBE’S East CORNERSTONE
Thus KAABA and its ENSHRINED black stone
Sit in the MASSIVE courtyard sun
Of the most sacred AL-MASJID MOSQUE
There many millions of pilgrims throng
And toward it for prayers they face and bow
And plod dutifully each year to give homage
To this enigmatic MONUMENTal facade

And stone edifice of their faith!

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Upon burning sands the sheep are shaded
And comforted and watered and well fed
Their shepherd has built an unshakeable shed
On a sure foundation of tested stone
Even fire-resistant stone like no other
They ‘see’ and are awed by his caring
And follow him because he is kind
The very One good and loving and loyal
They discern his true voice of nobility
Yes, their shepherd’s reliable humility
The fulfilled truth of greatness in him-
The Fine Shepherd
The ‘Son of Man’
And son of God
He–that One—
transcended a pompous facade

For a wood staff and crown of thorns

and a donkey colt as his royal carriage

Yet shall wield his father’s divinity
Long after all monuments crumble and fade

‘For it is written’, the Shepherd reminds his flock

‘That the God who made the world and all the things in it..

being Lord of heaven and earth…

Does not dwell in handmade temples’!

Jahgirl
07/24/14