Psalm 1

Back in April, I mentioned I was working on a series of poems inspired by Mozart’s Requiem. My plan was not merely to rehash the Requiem’s text in a modern style but to interact with the text poetically. I hoped to write poems that reimagined the text through my personal lens while (hopefully) honoring the text’s original intent and meaning.

After a couple weeks, I finished “Requiem” and wondered what to do next. Almost immediately I wondered if I could do with the Psalms what I had done with Mozart’s Requiem. But I blew the idea off because “I had just done something like that.”

Well, the idea didn’t go away, and a couple weeks later I decided to start working on poems inspired by the Psalms. Now, there’s no way I’m going to do every Psalm (there are 150!). But I decided to pick a limited number of favorites or others that have poetic potential. So I’ve started working on these.

For whatever reason, I am finding these a lot harder to write than “Requiem.” In a couple weeks I completed poems corresponding to the 14 sections of the Requiem text. After twice that amount of time, I’ve reinterpreted two Psalms and am finishing a third. I can’t account for this. After writing for over 25 years, I still don’t understand the ebb and flow of the creative process.

Below is my first Psalm, based on Psalm 1. My poem is first, followed by the original text of Psalm 1 from the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB).

Psalm 1

Shunning dirt, 
the tree’s roots push into stardust 
and curl around planets, drinking 
the music of the spheres and radiance
as its limbs spread toward earth.

Song and starlight swell into
the sweet flesh of fruit,
burdening the boughs
and gleaming in the tree’s crown
as all around echoless, dark places stare

open-mouthed.


Psalm 1 (HCSB)

How happy is the man
who does not follow the advice 
of the wicked
or take the path of sinners
or join a group of mockers!
Instead, his delight is
in the LORD’s instruction,
and he meditates on it day
and night.
He is like a tree planted
beside streams of water
that bears its fruit
in season
and whose leaf
does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.

The wicked are not like this;
instead, they are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
Therefore, the wicked
will not survive
the judgment,
and sinners will not be
in the community
of the righteous.

For the LORD watches over
the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked
leads to ruin.