About Ilana
Pantoum for a Prophet
What good is doing good, when evil creeps back in?
The thing we built together—
stone upon stone, a scrape of tar
for the heaven-maker, the fashioner of the stars—
betrays the goodness that permitted it.
Once shaken by cries known far away, hear
how joy becomes contrition in a moment.
I’ve been here before.
Drawing my remembrance toward
forever from always,
I pledge an oath I know I cannot keep.
I’ve been here before,
shaken by cries known far away, here
for ever, in all ways,
betraying the goodness that permitted me
to pledge an oath. I cannot even keep
stone upon stone. A scrape of tar
draws my remembrance toward
how joy becomes contrition. In a moment,
the heaven-maker fashioned the stars.
What good is doing good when evil creeps back in
the thing we built together?
O heaven-maker, fashioner of the stars,
draw our remembrance toward
what good is. Doing good when evil creeps back in:
stone upon stone, a scrape of tar,
the thing we build together.
Be true to goodness. Permit us,
once shaken by cries known far away, to hear
how joy transcends contrition in a moment:
I’ve been here before
forever to always;
I pledge an oath I cannot help but keep.
Description
Israel’s history contains both tall mountaintop moments of glory and deep valleys of forgetfulness. Nehemiah and Ezra lead their people in great rejoicing and solemn promises as they all confess their sins, rededicating themselves to obedience. But it doesn’t take long for them to break their covenant, just as their ancestors did before them. How, then, can we guard against despair? What’s the sense of committing to righteousness when fallibility seems to win over and over? This poem type is called a pantoum. The lines of the first stanza are present in the following stanzas, but they take on a different order—and so a different meaning. Though we return to our failure in ways new and old, God will always prove Himself to be radically, ceaselessly faithful.
Artist Bio
Ilana Baer studied literature at Westmont College, where she was mentored by poet Paul Willis. She’s grateful that God made poetry wide enough for both the silly and the sacred.