The
Hours of worship: Sundays 10:30 am, Nursery is provided
Adult Forum: 9:30 am
Sunday School: 10:30 am
First United Methodist Church
144 Cedar Street
Corning, NY 14830
Peacocks Ascending
Richard
H. Sivers
Possessing
wings no human form can match;
Amid
the rainbow’s colors on the painter’s palette
In
daily flight of tint and hue from earth to heaven
Ascend
pigmented images from floor to shadowed arch.
Joined
by others in their flight, the peacocks rise still higher,
Until
as sun descends beyond horizon far,
They
disappear at apex high in paint and plaster,
With
the fading of the sun at dusk of day.
An
outside branch or leaf sometimes obscures
The
shapes emerging from the prismed glass.
Sunlight
filtered into colors cast across the temple space;
The
peacocks wing upward in their every day display.
From
wall to floor to wall once more
The
peacocks’ flight match the watcher’s own.
The
clear glass disclosing from within itself
A
contrast of harmonic blend.
At
close of day, the colored peacocks disappear,
Gone
until another rising sun appears.
Yet
beveled crystal source, enshrined by windowed arch remains,
Insignia
of faith enduring day and night.
In
truth the cross was there from start to end,
Disguised
by rainbow’s exposition;
Veiled
by onlooker’s wonderment and awe
As
peacocks flew upon the walls.
While
peacocks leave no trace or mark upon the sacred walls,
The
cross remains, a hundred years of life now lived.
With
each day’s rising of the sun appear once more in storied flight
Peacocks
ascending; enlivened in their daily resurrection by hollowed cross.
Peacocks
Ascending copyright by Richard Sivers, 2009