I <br />In synagogues of cedar hills <br />weathered shepherds prayed <br />in parabled fields the psalmists <br />sang as bearded grasses swayed <br />bowing to a faith as firm as staves <br />gripped by the sentinels <br />of flocks whose tinkling softly pealed <br />a Bethlehem of bells. <br /> <br />II <br />Crouched on towers, Romanesque <br />gargoyles leered in stone, <br />mocking redemptive requiems <br />with death's processional drone <br />while sudden scythe and hooded cloak, <br />quick to plagues and knells, <br />stalked the campaniles' gloom <br />of medieval bells. <br /> <br />III <br />Occasion now usurps grace, <br />the caduceus replaces staves: <br />clinking cymbals hide in hymns <br />dry voices lift in naves; <br />comforts cushion brutish fears, <br />pulpits punish bagatelles, <br />mere tintinnabulary tales <br />flap as the tongues of bells. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />[Original version published in the Trinity Review]<br /><br />William F Dougherty<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/epochal-bells/
