Poets play with the sound of words perhaps more than other writers. Who can read “As Kingfishers Catch Fire” (by Gerard Manley Hopkins) and think otherwise? How about the incantatory rhymes of Poe’s “The Raven”? —“Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December; And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.” Poets often gravitate toward one word over another simply because of the sound.
“The wheels in the wheels” is a phrase from Ezekiel chapter one. Ezekiel has a vision of the glory of the Lord and sees “living creatures” speeding about in a whirlwind. The creatures are perched on wheels that intersect each other, and they move with the creatures as the Spirit moves them.
One day, I found myself mulling over the sound of this phrase from Ezekiel, and it developed into a poem called, “The Wheels in the Wheels.” As this poem took shape, I found the meaning of the words was almost lost in the sound and rhythm of them. This gave the poem a hypnotic, visionary feel apropos to Ezekiel’s experience.
“The Wheels in the Wheels” will be in my upcoming book, Above the Rain.
The Wheels in the Wheels
The wheels in the wheels and the whirlwinds whirling
‘round winged beasts wailing “Holy, Holy,
Holy!” hailing Him who was, who
lives, who’s always moving, roving
through the earth, scattering pearls that birth
worlds within the world, concentric
twirling, circuits whirring, “You in
I, and I in you,” fraternity,
eternity, and charity,
the wheels whirling in the wheels
