If we imagined the divine as
horizontal instead of vertical,
would saints have wheels—or skis,
in northern reaches?
Would worshippers look into the
distance with leveled eyes and
imagine their loved ones beyond
the line of trees, hills, or concrete?
And would houses of worship be tunnels
whose ends projected their sacred symbol,
to the vanishing point where vision
failed and faith necessarily took over entirely,
in that realm of metaphor perpendicular
to ours and our privileging of up and those
wings awfully useful to reach it?
About John Zedolik
For thirteen years, John Zedolik taught English and Latin in a private school. Eventually, he wrote a dissertation that focused on the pragmatic comedy of "The Canterbury Tales," thereby completing his Ph.D. in English. Currently, he is an adjunct instructor at a number of universities in Pittsburgh. He has published poems in such journals as Aries, The Bangalore Review (IND), Commonweal, Orbis (UK), Paperplates (CAN), Poem, Pulsar Poetry Webzine (UK), Poetry Salzburg Review (AUT), Third Wednesday, Transom, and in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He also had a full-length collection, Salient Points and Sharp Angles, published in 2019. His iPhone continues to be his primary poetry notebook, and he hopes his use of technology in regard to this ancient art form remains fruitful.
