By power pure His simple “Let there be…”
Cast into being stars and space and time
To spin about in His eternity.
His sparkling wit through endless light-years climbed
That all of matter might be made sublime.
By equal power life appeared on earth
In full accordance with His kind design.
His lively variations knew no dearth:
All crawling things, all birdlike, all bovine,
The daffodil, the rose, the dandelion.
That power peaked when He created Man
And all salvation first began to chart.
So thus it was, intrinsic to His plan,
To Man and Man alone He did impart
The sad and human power to break His heart.
Jeffrey Essmann is an essayist and poet living in New York. His poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and literary journals, among them Dappled Things, the St. Austin Review, The Society of Classical Poets, Agape Review, America Magazine, U.S. Catholic, Amethyst Review, Heart of Flesh Literary Journal, Pensive, and various venues of the Benedictine monastery with which he is an oblate. He is a certified Catechist in the Archdiocese of New York and editor of the Catholic Poetry Room.