{"id":10,"date":"2006-03-14T23:37:45","date_gmt":"2006-03-15T04:37:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/?p=10"},"modified":"2007-03-07T10:16:34","modified_gmt":"2007-03-07T15:16:34","slug":"stained-glass-and-incense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/2006\/03\/14\/stained-glass-and-incense\/","title":{"rendered":"Stained-glass and Incense"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In my dream the top of the ornate oak pew is at eye level:<br \/>\nThe wood bears the patina of generations of hard-working hands<br \/>\nAnd dustings by soft cotton rags torn from old work shirts;<br \/>\nThe oak is dun, the wandering grain pattern is tiny black dashes<br \/>\nSpeaking the mysteries of faith like some random Morse code<br \/>\nTapped out by angels in the growth layers of the old oak.<br \/>\nI see the angels, grouped around the telegraph key,<br \/>\nHuge wings quivering gently, halos glowing softly<br \/>\nRichly robed bodies swaying subtly in time with the heavenly chorus.<br \/>\nThe message is simple, but I cannot comprehend it:<br \/>\nI stare at the Oak panel seeking some Rosetta Stone<br \/>\nThat will explain all. <em>Dies Ires <\/em>echoes over my head;<br \/>\nI hear the brass chain clinking against the incense burner.<br \/>\nSoon the heady opium of burning sandalwood flows over me;<br \/>\nI do not hear the pews creaking, the coughing, the babies crying<br \/>\nSilently, above me, the roof lifts off the church,<br \/>\nThe angel chorus descends, chanting gloriously, into my head,<br \/>\nThe roof settles silently.  A cough echoes above me.<br \/>\nThe sun the slopes through the taffy-coloured stained-glass<br \/>\nAnd coats my hands, just like my father\u2019s, with nicotine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In my dream the top of the ornate oak pew is at eye level: The wood bears the patina of generations of hard-working hands And dustings by soft cotton rags torn from old work shirts; The oak is dun, the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/2006\/03\/14\/stained-glass-and-incense\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riverwriter.ca\/wordcurrents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}