(Thomas Bormans/Unsplash)

1.

In every bishop’s cathedral
just before the nave
racks of sparkly flames
in little glass cubes
defy the cold darkness
 
lit by believers in need
of hope, miracles or
maybe in memoriam
inches from the nearby
coin box.
 
With an all-powerful God
what have you got to lose
with blessings and dreams
possible and cheap or free,
waiting for your wish?
 
So I wander in, doff
my cap to show respect,
and from the many
tiny fires select
a worthy wick,
 
take a taper to ignite
its nearest neighbor
just as one fervent
soul afire with faith
might inspire another.
 
2.
 
I’m but a dry wick at faith
in a world too far gone,
too big for me to save.
Blocked and needy, this poet
hopes to save his poem.
 
A God who made a world
with just a Word, begot
a world of words
far beyond the borders
of a modest poet’s brain.
 
While plunking down
my meager coins, I pray
that if this poem lay dead
like Lazarus with Martha
mourning at his tomb,
 
God may cure the ills
that killed it, and bring it back
with words, perhaps not like
Dante’s, but some that better fit
and make His angels smile.

Gary Stein’s Touring the Shadow Factory won the Brick Road Poetry Press annual competition in 2017. His chapbook, Between Worlds (Finishing Line, 2014), was a contest finalist. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in journals such as Poetry, Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore, Folio, Penn Review, the Atlanta Review, and the Asheville Poetry Review. He holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, co-edited Cabin Fever (The Word Works, 2004), and has taught creative writing in high schools and colleges.

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Published in the February 2025 issue: View Contents
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