GENESIS 19 - THE BELOVED AND I

Genesis 19

1 Now the two angels came to Sodom

And it was evening, Lot sat in

The city gate, would have unshod them.

He rose to meet them like his kin,

Bowed down to greet them to the ground.

2 He said "Here now, my lords, be found

To sleep this night beside my board,

As I am servant, you are lord,

Then rising early you may go

In safety to the next depot."

But they said "No, we'll spend the night

Upon the open square in sight."

3 But he insisted strongly, so

They turned in with him for to go

Into his house. He made a feast,

Baked bread, they ate it without yeast.



I came for the first time to eastern bank

Of the Euphrates. Dusk I had to thank

That from the imams' training school came out

Five young men, by the river walked about

And took me by compulsion, gave me meat

And kept me in the mosque, a special treat,

Until the evening prayers were done. I found

A bed and home for one night. I am bound

The gate of Sodom was no better place

Nor more hospitable. No stranger's face

Was seen but recognized as face of God.

Beloved, I find Your face wherever mine

Is recognized by what small mark and sign.

The kernel's sweet, though we see only pod.



4 Before they could lie down, the men

Of Sodom, old and young again,

From every quarter, here they came

All to surround the house for shame.

5 They called to Lot and said "Where are

The men who came to you tonight?

Bring out the guests from near or far

And let us get acquainted right."



From loving contemplation of the face

The evil heart will without guide give place

To lust, and lust bring forth at last the fruit

Of violence in rape to follow suit.

So great and civilized reduced in lust

And violence, sank faith to humble dust.

The heart imagines shining faith to be

Its hallmark in any depravity.

The pristine "I" remains divine through all

The byways of transgression's beck and call.

Beloved, I turn from contemplation of

Your face upon creation's screen of love

And find how easily illusion's pall

Falls on the empty heart without recall.



6 Lot went out to them through the door,

And shut the door behind him, for

7 He said "Please, do not, brothers mine,

Act wickedly, but well and fine!

8 "See now, I have two daughters of

My congregation who've had love

From no man yet. I'll bring them out

And you shall choose without a doubt

Which of you men shall marry them.

But do no harm, do not condemn

These guests of mine, and stay aloof,

For they are guests beneath my roof."



The laws of marriage never fail to stand,

And hospitality to give a hand

To traveller in the way remains for good.

All brothers must behave the way they should,

No matter what the level of their power,

Degree of wealth, no matter what the hour

Or what the vision of Your glory be.

The mystic state does not set any free

From duty to obey the divine law.

Just as the master of high algebra

Does not give up the simple two plus two,

I bow to ethics even in the pew

Of mystic brotherhood. Beloved, the roof

Casts shadows on the friend and the aloof.



9 They said "Stand back! This one came in

To live here and tell us what's sin.

Keep acting as a judge and we

Shall deal worse with you than with them.

You certainly shall not go free."

So they pressed hard, Lot tried to stem

The tide against him, but in vain,

They nearly broke the door in twain.

10 The men reached out their hands and took

Lot in the house, shut door, 11 and struck

The men who were at the doorway

Of the house with blindness, they say,

Both small and great, and so they wore

Themselves to rags to find the door.



Blindness on blindness does not stop the go

To find the door to heaven and to show

Both self and world that I am never wrong

Though rightness cannot taste my weary song

In truth. The frantic flight toward the sky

In search of spirituality and pie

Does not give up though clouds of dark and mist

Protect the frozen heights of thought, insist

That on the sunny side of firmament

There is the gold-filled pot to which I'm sent.

I shall beat down the door and show I'm brave

Who search for You, Beloved, not like a slave,

But with a virile sense ignoring doom,

A man who knows his place and well-stocked room.



12 Then the men said to Lot, "Have you

Anyone else here? Son-in-law,

Your sons, your daughters, and whom you

Have in this grand basilica,

Take all and leave this wretched place!

13 "We will destroy this place, because

The outcry of their breaking laws

Has grown great in front of YHWH's face,

And YHWH has sent us to destroy it."

14 So Lot went out not to enjoy it

But warning to his sons-in-law,

Who'd married his daughters, his awe

Did not affect them when he said

"Get up, and leave this place, for YHWH

Will spoil this city!" But his head

Was foolish to his sons-in-law

Who were not worth the talking to.



This world is upside down, and yet its folk

Walk upright as it were. My faith, I poke

My head around the corner just to see

How civilized upside down things can be.

All things continue as they ought and should

Since time was made, and mount and valley stood.

And yet a day can come when all things change,

When narrow breaks out in a further range

Of mountains, smoke on valleys, rising seas.

Who spoke of variance from routine lees

Met storms of ridicule. I make my days

Eventless, yet unique in all their ways

As I seek You, Beloved, each day anew,

Infinities of stays in what You do.



15 When morning dawned, the angels urged

Lot to hurry, "Get up, diverged,

Take wife, both daughters who are here,

Lest you be consumed in the fear

And punishment of Sodom." 16 And

While he lingered, they took his hand,

His wife's and both his daughters' too,

Since mercy came to him from YHWH,

And brought him out as they had pity,

And set him down outside the city.



Lay hold on me, Beloved, I linger here

Beneath the rosy dawn. I have no fear.

Is it not good I have no fear at all?

Is it not grand my hearing of Your call

Has well inured me to the fateful ball,

And left me set apart, serene and calm

While others frantically avoid the bomb,

The others being angels even? My

High state of spirituality, so high,

Prevents any response to hue and cry.

Is it not fine, Beloved, I know no rage

And sit emotionless from age to age?

They are but prisoners of dark illusion,

(Are they not?) who succumb to the confusion.



17 It happened, when they'd brought them out,

He said "Escape, don't turn about!

Don't look behind you, no, nor stay

Anywhere in the plain or way.

Go to the mountains, lest you be

Destroyed." 18 Then Lot spoke to them, he

Said "Please, no, O my lords! 19 "Indeed

Now, I, your servant, in my need,

Have found grace in your sight, and you

Have multiplied the mercy you

Have shown me by saving my life,

But I can't escape with my wife

Into the mountains, lest some danger

Come overtake me while a ranger

And I die. 20 "See now, this city

Is near enough for me to flee,

And it's a small one, please now give

Me leave to go there and to live."



The city is a symbol of Your beauty,

Beloved, and so I live in one as duty.

The duty to bring to the civilized

The divine message should be realized.

The mystic cup kept to oneself alone

In time turns fat and meat to tasteless bone.

So let me join the throngs in some bright city

Where men are great and women know no pity.

If I should have to live on mountain slope

Who knows what evil might destroy my hope,

Who knows what tender flowers after the rain

Might clog my path to wealth and mystic gain?

Let my soul live near possibilities

And not beneath the stars and awful trees.



21 And he said to him, "See, I grant

You your request as habitant,

And shall not overthrow this city

For which you have appealed in pity.

22 "But hurry and escape there quickly.

For I must wait for you and prickly

Till you arrive, so I can act.

That is part of my promised pact."

That's why Zoar's the city's name,

And it means small, but not to blame.

23 The sun had risen upon the land

When Lot entered Zoar with his band.

24 Then YHWH rained brimstone down with fire

On Sodom and Gomorrah, ire

From YHWH out of the heavens come

25 So He destroyed them, made them dumb,

And all the plain, the people in

The cities, and what grew for bin.



I understand Your killing all the people

And breaking down both wall and dome and steeple

With fire and brimstone fully justified.

But everything that grew on the ground died.

Are plants and flowers sinful, and is fruit

Worth nothing in Your sight, like dust and soot?

Ah, kill the worried people, Lord, but spare

The violet and coltsfoot, make not bare

The lovely earth, the fragrant ground and soil.

Curse not again the earth for human toil.

Keep brimstone on the city and the fashion,

But when it comes to wild wood, have compassion.

My I-ness with a curious willingness

Relinquishes the people You would bless.



26 But his wife looked back behind him,

Became a tower of salt for whim.



The wife of Lot, she was a comely lot

Of sack, and popular for what she'd got.

Salt of the earth, they said who knew her best.

Shoulders and head she stood above the rest.

She knew the score, and kept her man in hand,

Her husband so susceptible to grand

And noble visions, quite up in the air.

But Lot's wife handled more than was her share.

She looked back to be sure nothing forgotten

Preyed on her mind, not gold, linen or cotton.

She looked back on a life ordered, well kept,

And stood to take a hand, and stood, and slept.

Who handles well the world and life and show

Remains asleep, and salted down to mow.



27 And Abraham went early out

To where he and YHWH'd stood about.

28 Then he looked toward the city plain,

To Sodom and Gomorrah's pain,

And toward all the land of the plain,

And he saw, and indeed, the smoke

Of the land about which God spoke

Went up like smoke from a furnace.

29 And it happened, that, when alas,

Ælohim spoiled the cities on

The plain, that Ælohim went on

To mind Himself of Abraham,

And sent Lot out of all the sham

And spoil, when He destroyed the place

Where Lot had lived and shown his face.



I look at rosy dawn toward the place

Your Angel stood, and see again his face

Set in compassion and in well-sought duty.

I see again Your Angel in his beauty.

The burning love You hold to all mankind

Will not be satisfied with torn and blind,

But must take of the first and best of all

To sacrifice in sweetness and in gall.

I turn toward the flames of charity

And feel the hotness on my face, I see

The longing fires sprung quickly from Your heart

To cleanse the soul in every nook and part

Of othernesses and of other gods,

Till You alone are left above the clods.



30 Then Lot went out of Zoar and lived

Up in the mountains, negatived

Had been his living in Zoar for

Himself and both his daughters, more

Could not be borne, and so he went

To live in caves instead of tent.

31 Now the firstborn said to the younger,

"Our father, leader without hunger

Of this diminished dervish order,

Is old, and there's nor man nor boarder

To marry us in all the earth.

32 "Come, let us make our father-priest

Of congregation and of worth

Drink wine of ecstasy. At least

He'll marry us and thus preserve

His line of children and not swerve."



Afraid to live among the riot ways

Of city nights and polished city days,

Lot takes two women from his congregation

To build on ashes towards another nation.

And yet his scruples as a man of God

Will not permit him to plough up the sod.

Loss, loss is all a man can ever find

In Zoar or in Sodom with the blind.

He offered them in marriage to blind fools

Who came at last in refuge to the pools

Of solitude and duty. Sometimes there

Is nothing left but water and still air.

Bless then, Beloved, the refugee and star,

The wandering satyrs wherever they are.



33 So they made their father and priest

Drink wine of ecstasy increased

That very night and the first born

Contracted marriage and was sworn,

And consummated though he knew

Not when she came nor when withdrew.

34 It happened on the next day too

The firstborn told the younger, "Do

As I did with our father-leader,

Let him drink wine, become conceder,

And enter marriage contract so

You shall lie with him to make grow

The line of our father and beau."



If wine of ecstasy is what is taught

In this crude story or if wine that's bought

From liquor outlet is intended here,

It makes but little difference, I fear.

The story is a warning for both things,

The weaknesses of labourers and kings.

I drink the clear draught of water of life

I find served at Your table, and not strife.

Beloved, I find the drunkenness You give

Makes mind and senses clearer where I live.

The heady realizing You are One

Is stronger stimulation than the fun

Of drinking and carousing. You are my

Sane knowing, my Beloved, without the pie.



35 Then they made their father drink wine

Of ecstasy and countersign

A contract of wedding and so

The younger lay, nor did he know

When she lay down nor when she rose.

36 So both young ladies as they chose

Were pregnant by the priestly throes.

37 The firstborn gave birth to a son

And called his name Moab when done.

He is ancestor to this day

Of Moabites. 38 The younger's way

Was to give birth to son also

And Ben-Ammi was his chapeau.

He's ancestor to Ammon now

Or till the last day anyhow.