Metaphysical Song

Metaphysical Song

First principle,
Being’s pure act,
Infinite cause
Of finite fact;

Essential being,
Beyond our sight,
Without which, nothing,
Neither love nor light,

Only through You
Love’s infinite power
Brings into being
Atom and flower.


Only through You,
Infinite light
Illuminates
Both seen and sight,

Beckoning us—
Alert, awake—
Along the way
That we must take,

Resting in this:
The journey’s true,
First, midst, and last,
Grounded in You.


--Helen Pinkerton, in First Things, April 2006,p. 33