How Shall I Love Thee, God?

How Shall I Love Thee, God?

(With a bow to
Elizabeth Barrett Browning.)

O God, how shall I love Thee,
let me count the ways.
I'll love Thee for Thy vast infinities,
tremendous powers that set the stars ablaze,
and genius that made haze, bees, seas and ease.

I'll love Thee for Thy grand aesthetic style
that shapes the lofty cloud into a tower,
that decorates this universe domicile,
and mints with rare design each elegant flower.

 I'll love Thee for Thy pure divinity
that stirs in me a strong centrifugal pull.
How dare we mere ex nihilo humans be
smug-like before One so adorable?

I'll love Thee thrice at once, O Trinity;
I'll love Thee incarnate One most intimately,
Who from transcendent home descends on me,
to closest love me--Eucharistically.
I'll easiest love Thee human-God I see,
in human-bread bestowed so lovingly.

But Thy sweet self in others I also see,
good looks and not, good, bad, rich, poor and free;
and since Thou lovest all as much as me,
I will for Thee love all in charity.

O Thou, all-loving divine infinity,
I'll love Thee most because Thou lovest me,
and though Thou givest Thy best love perfectly,
I'll love Thee here with this flawed poetry.

by Pete Voelz       11/98