POEM: To Yeats/Witness/Agnostic

             TO YEATS

William Butler, don't you see?
God sent Christ to die for me.
Those conundrums you'd have solved,
Conflicts, tensions which involved
Your brilliance, that great Void
Which left you agonized, annoyed,
You claimed unreconciled--but see!
God sent Christ to die for me!


                  WITNESS

      Did I say I'd speak for Him?
    Was there confidence in logic?
   Ah, the praise and careful thrust
        Of argument I felt I must
Deliver, locked when conscience smote
Still huddled quiv'ring in my throat.
 Locked within my throat the gold--
  Precious words, themselves a bold
        Doxology to given truth,
    Bottled beneath a glottal roof.




                  AGNOSTIC

What words of faith can set the doubter free
Whose skepticism is reality?
To whom can answers mean release from tensions
When his world will only recognize the questions?

(Written July 3, 1966)