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This poem is taken from PN Review 132, Volume 26 Number 4, March - April 2000.

Damnatio Memoriae Sebastian Barker

I
The arrows of the Almighty are in me;
    my spirit drinks their poison;
The terrors of God are pitched against me.
    Truly, God is a God
Who hides himself
    in the wadi of the willows
Under every green tree
    lost in loss itself.
As deep as Sheol, as high as heaven,
    I have searched for you, O God,
And found nothing. Yet I will praise you
    from the depths of my being
Eulogizing the abyss of divine charity,
    moaning with breaking heart and bitter grief.


II
I believe the notion of God essential to the mind.
    I believe divine power lifts a hand
...


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