william stark

William Stark is a student of classics and chemistry at Furman University in Greenville, SC, where he works as the editor-in-chief of the journal Christo et Doctrinae. He writes primarily formal poetry inspired by the works of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Malcolm Guite, and Seamus Heaney, and he is published at Christo et Doctrinae, the Furman Echo, and Stories of Yearning. William can be contacted at williamstark2003@gmail.com or www.linkedin.com/in/williamjeffreystark.

genesis

Burn.

Be.

Spark, and illuminate—

Flare, like the infinitesimal piercing of

Light that first breaks like a wave on the 

Edge of the flame-roaring dawn. And the

Word, singularity, sings in that burgeoning,

Flashing explosion of fiery verse that is

Music far-off beyond world-ancient stars—while all

Growth and unfurling now floods from that origin,

Blazing and blooming, begotten from nothingness,

Spoken, awakened, and rampant in radiance:

Infinite poetry rippling with fruitfulness,

Surging creation in billows of depthless span—

And pulsing still in everyday,

Though ages distant from that sound:

A yearning music on the wind,

Scents of strange flowers we have not found,

With subtle longing harmony,

All echo, shimmer, tantalize;

The ripples of infinity

Yet hum and hymn through sea and skies.

Listen—the threads of the world still all thrum that chord:

Birth of all things, in which all things will be restored—

For glory waits and strains, a rising storm:

A gathering grace’s fury found in love.

Our air is tense with thunder, taut, and warm:

We wait the Word poured out like rain above.

Creation aches to snap its stretching seams

And loose a splendor now unseen, unknown;

Our earthbound being quakes with swelling streams

Of Heaven's laughter bursting like the dawn.

Now as this present shadow shreds away

New music floods horizon’s curtains furled:

A far green country under rising day,

A bright undying song beyond this world—

As at the first, so evermore shall be

Creation’s echoes swell to final harmony:

Fabric of fiery notes, sublime verse of one Word.

Read more of William’s work in Solum Journal Volume IV (forthcoming).