I so enjoyed thinking about death (enjoyed paradoxically speaking, like the metaphysical poets) this week with Wit and Mr. Richardson’s little book, and John Donne and of course, LOST, that I thought I’d share another poem by Mr. Donne written on his sick-bed:

HYMN TO GOD, MY GOD, IN MY SICKNESS.

SINCE I am coming to that Holy room,
Where, with Thy choir of saints for evermore,
I shall be made Thy music ; as I come
I tune the instrument here at the door,
And what I must do then, think here before ;

Whilst my physicians by their love are grown
Cosmographers, and I their map, who lie
Flat on this bed, that by them may be shown
That this is my south-west discovery,
Per fretum febris, by these straits to die ;

I joy, that in these straits I see my west ;
For, though those currents yield return to none,
What shall my west hurt me ? As west and east
In all flat maps—and I am one—are one,
So death doth touch the resurrection.

Is the Pacific sea my home ? Or are
The eastern riches ? Is Jerusalem ?
Anyan, and Magellan, and Gibraltar ?
All straits, and none but straits, are ways to them
Whether where Japhet dwelt, or Cham, or Shem.

We think that Paradise and Calvary,
Christ’s cross and Adam’s tree, stood in one place ;
Look, Lord, and find both Adams met in me ;
As the first Adam’s sweat surrounds my face,
May the last Adam’s blood my soul embrace.

So, in His purple wrapp’d, receive me, Lord ;
By these His thorns, give me His other crown ;
And as to others’ souls I preach’d Thy word,
Be this my text, my sermon to mine own,
“Therefore that He may raise, the Lord throws down.”

“As west and east are one, so death doth touch the resurrection.” I do like that simile. And then there are the other similes and comparisons: Paradise and Calvary, Christ’s Cross and Adam’s tree, the first Adam meets the Last Adam, a crown of thorns translated to a crown of glory.

I do like Mr. Donne’s poetry. It reminds me of the incongruities and the paradoxes of LOST, and of life in general.

Poetry Friday round-up is at the blog of Kelly Polark today.