Lord Jesus Poems
No. 4

Tamed to a timid & benign
image too familiar to confess,
too sentimental to proclaim
as much more than a sweet
pablum of a tepid teacher,
dulled at the edges into
a harmless, vapid figure,
the ancient Jesus is made
a caricature of Himself,
an oral & dull parody
appeasing a modern world
addicted to the mediocrity
of fireworks, circuses
& ideological vacuity
making the fiery Lord
of all being and life
both bland & boring.
Lacking all subtleties
& mystical amazement,
Jesus is thinly portrayed
in decadent thought games
devoid of cross & uprising,
a nicety without His passion
& radically sacrificial blood,
a paper tiger of a distraction
cancelled of His fierce love,
an ironical domestication
fogging Jesus to a docility
betraying His beauty, truth
& humble, drastic power.




Lord Jesus Poems
No. 11

Epitome of all good
in God’s hidden sight,
theophany in mystery,
incarnated & unspeak-
able suffered loving
among excavated souls,
a man buried in history
like a divine mustard seed
growing wild anywhere
& uprising in dark night.
Embodiment of beauty,
essence of total truth,
human face of God
among all facings,
voice of pure hope
among ancient ruins.
Promise of bliss
through endured pain,
Master of death & life,
Lord of sacred drama.




Lord Jesus Poems
No. 12

Infinity stretches beyond itself,
a perfectly-prolific consuming love
fires-forth constant eternal flarings
into the worlds of human hearts,
the God of love as love itself
infusing every living thing
with a saturating loving
in a divinely-drenched,
absurdly-spirited intoxication
sending us reeling homeward
towards the Lord Jesus Christ
forever wanting to descend
into every slothful-sinning soul
in a personally-real theophany
silently ready to fully convert
derelict, dilapidated minds
into Christ-oceans of life
teeming with sacred mysteries
in every last common moment,
fusing silence with pure love
suddenly breaking fully out.

BIO
Alan Altany has BA & MA degrees in Catholic theology, and a Ph. D. in religious studies (University of Pittsburgh). After an academic career, he is a semi-retired, septuagenarian professor of Comparative Religions at a small college in Florida, USA. In the past he has also been the founder & editor of a small magazine of poetry (The Beggar’s Bowl), a high school teacher, factory and lawn maintenance worker, hotel clerk, novelist, truck driver, etc. He has published two books of poetry: A Beautiful Absurdity (2022) and The Greatest Longing (2023). His poetry has been published by Tipton Poetry Journal, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Valley Voices, Sand Hill Literary Magazine, The Hong Kong Review, North Dakota Quarterly, and others. He writes with the steadfast support of his golden retriever, Zeke.
Website: https://www.alanaltany.com/.