I Sing the Life Eternal

Durham Cathedral, Durham, UK 2015

I Sing the Life Eternal   (John 6:56-58)        

 (with deference to Walt Whitman and Billy Joel)

I sing the life eternal,

Life before beginning

Life alive now,

Life continuing then,

Beyond all breathing

All beating

All believing

Of it.

I sing the life eternal,

Not of the “Body Electric”^†

As so the poet

Sings.

No,

I sing

Not of the beauty

Of the shell

Which holds me

Or the touch,

Or fascination,

infatuation,

Of the body

I live in,

As so our poet.

I sing of a moment

of knowing

That life

Begins

When I let it begin.

“The life eternal,”

says the One I Trust

with life itself.

“The life eternal,”

of which

I sing

“lives in you

In the consuming of

What keeps life in each

Body Electric.”

Yes,
"All things please the soul —
but these please the soul well." ^†

In the very sustaining of life

Is found

the life eternal.

“That which brings life,”

breathes the One I Believe,

“the bread, the wine, the love –  

in that

I Am,  

the life eternal.”

My life eternal

Begins

With a first breath

Or even before,

Promised the Believe-ed One.

In the breathing

of those who bore me

Who touched

This Body Electric

at its beginning

breath.

Or even before,

Nurtured in a womb,

Love keeping me

Afloat

Safe

Nourished

Sustaining my life

Without me knowing.

I sing the life eternal

Not a requiem

Composed for my grievers.

which I will never hear

But the soothing lull

Piercing my

Soul

Filling my womb

My cradle

My life.

Song sung

At the beginning,

Before and throughout,

All life in my living.

“I promised I would never leave you”

Sings another poet

“Someday we'll all be gone
But lullabyes go on and on...
They never die
That's how you
And I
Will be.”^††

So also

The Poet of Life

A promise

Of life going

On and on

Which never ends.

A remembering

Of love between

Words shared.

A remembering always.

A promise fulfilled.

Yes,

I sing the life eternal

Beginning  

Before

It’s beginning;

It ends

At never.

“Abide in me” –

I trust, I believe,

From beginning to

Never ending. –

“As I do in you.”

Now

Then

Eternally.

I sing the life eternal

Bread of the Living God

Abundant life,

Forever life

Sustained in me

Shared with you

Alive in us.

I sing the life eternal,

Life sung from beyond me,

Into my life,

From the Living One

Who lives beyond me

Who lives within me

Who lives beyond

All believing

Of it. ^†††

© Copyright 2015
James F. McIntire
All rights reserved.

^†Walt Whitman. “I Sing the Body Electric.” (1855)

^††Billy Joel. “Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel).” (1993)

^†††John 6:56-58 (NRSV) – Jesus said “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living God sent me, and I live because of God, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.”