The 99 Poem Challenge (Fox-Trot-9) ✓

80. Chant Royal -- The Realm of God

The 99 Poem Challenge
Fox-Trot-9

80. Chant Royal — The Realm of God

1

That night, I shared my fair delight with all
   Her friends, their spritely faces all aglow
As they beheld within my hands the small
   Glimmer of light that I possessed. The glow
Within my hands rose up and flashed and filled
Our secret place with light. We all were thrilled
   And nearly breathless in our sudden fright,
   Until we saw the stratospheric height
From which we were transported from the ground,
   Revealing to our eyes an awesome sight
Through boundless vistas in this vast surround!

2

Looking around, we saw the gorgeous ball
   That is the moon looming halfway below
The grand horizon in the astral sprawl
   Of rolling clouds so high above us, so
That we beheld in awe the astral-chilled
Magnificence of God's finesse so skilled.
   Through astral fields of green, we took delight
   In viewing floating islands left and right
And lofty towers far into the background
   Where mighty angels daily take their flight
Through boundless vistas in this vast surround.

3

My fairy friends and I can scarce recall
   The last time earthbound eyes saw past the rainbow
Or wondered at the chaos of a squall
   As if observing through a snow globe's window.
Indeed we felt like gods who could rebuild
The earth to our own liking if we willed
   It like the God of boundless strength and insight,
   If only mortals had such brawn and foresight,
But we are feeble creatures too unsound,
   Impatient to perceive with mortal hindsight
Through boundless vistas in this vast surround.

4

Onward we walked, enchanted overall
   By rolling halls of air that start to blow.
Then came a boom as if a cannonball
   Exploded through the dizzy vertigo,
Knocking us off our feet. We all were spilled
Upon the field and thought we had been killed
   When seraphs then descended clothed in white
   And armored with the glow of blinding firelight,
So bright that for a while we thought we drowned
   Beneath a sea of dreams so full of skylight
Through boundless vistas in this vast surround.

5

Slowly regaining all our wits, we bawl
   Out of our dream-filled vertigo and throw
Ourselves upon our hands and knees and crawl
   To them, begging forgiveness ere we go
To Hell, our hearts suspended, breathing stilled
In fear of judgement. Deference fulfilled,
   The seraphs said, "Look up and know the light
   That is our God's great gift of love and might!"
We looked and felt His presence all around
   Us, in our hearts and in the burning daylight
Through boundless vistas in this vast surround!

(Envoi)

My fairy friends and I awoke, instilled
With God's tremendous love. We almost shrilled
   When we awoke so forcefully that night,
   That we could hardly slumber overnight;
And even as I write this, every sound
   Of nature still reminds me of that invite
Through boundless vistas in that vast surround.

(To be continued...)

A/N: The Chant Royal, introduced into French poetry in the 15th century by Christine de Pizan and Charles d'Orléans, is a poetic form that is a variation of the ballade form and consists of five eleven-line stanzas and a five-line envoi or a seven-line envoi. To add to the complexity, no rhyming word is used twice; the complexity of the form caused William Caswell Jones to describe it as "impractical" for common use.

Meter: Iambic pentameter
Rhyme:

Stanza 1: ababccddedE
Stanza 2: ababccddedE
Stanza 3: ababccddedE
Stanza 4: ababccddedE
Stanza 5: ababccddedE
Stanza 6: (envoi) ddedE or ccddedE

Note: This poem continues the narrative started in the 60th poem of this collection, "Quatern — Secret Friend."