The First Cardinal I Have Ever Seen Answers My Question

Leland Seese

Pulled away from campus by a question,

drawn along Einstein Drive in Princeton,
I walk between two lines of sycamores 

beside the Institute where physicists
chase math and meaning
in the midst of randomness. 

A journal entry five weeks into seminary:

            In the presence
            of the Holy One
            precisely who am I? 

The sycamores form a narrow nave.
Unsteady acolyte, I walk the center aisle.

I walk and walk and walk.
Within the branches of a bush,

a flame.
Or no. A bird!

Physicists are asking what might hold
together everything.
Seminarians are asking God.

Bright red feathers, soft insistent song,
the bird calls me to let the question be.

And I am just now learning how to walk.

---

Leland Seese
Leland Seese lives in Seattle, Washington. His poems appear in Frontier Poetry, The Chestnut Reveiw, RHINO, and many other journals. More of his poems can be found at www.lelandseesepoetry.com.