Abstract
Sacred Allegory
I travelled roads from east to west
And passed a mighty city where
A thousand arc lights lit the ground
And smoking chimneys choked the air.
I saw there in a prophecy
As an unending city state
An empire that engulfed the world
Its name was Babylon the Great.
In that great city no birds sing
And in its streets no seed can flower
There steel and concrete have one theme
Whose only currency is power.
There none know what they serve or why
Or with their choices what they choose
But each choice is a zero sum
Where if I win then you must lose.
And that iron law twists every choice
And binds each soul with chains of iron
Its walls of iron ring every land
And seal off every road to Zion.
But standing there upon a shore
I thought I saw the lamb of God
A sacrifice already slain
With whitest wool stained red with blood.
And as I saw that powerless lamb
Had suffered all that power could do
A breath of life breathed though the land
By which the whole world was made new.
As with forgiveness, mercy, grace
The math of zero sum unwound
From wretched captives, naked, blind
The chains of iron fell to the ground.
Not iron but angels held their hand
As stepping by a crystal sea
Within a figured dance they find
An order in which all are free.
Then all equations were reversed
The lamb of God became a lion
The walls of iron were broken down
And pilgrims thronged the paths of Zion
And mirrored in that crystal sea
I saw the new Jerusalem
Its walls and trees and shining towers
Both here and now and still to come.
© Roger Wagner
The Road to Damascus
The moment that our journey starts
We are already on some road
Our destination programmed, set
All focus fixed on that set goal.
To see beyond the lucent map
A real world more really true
Is where on our Damascus road
Reality comes blazing through
Blindsided by a blinding light
Struck to the ground as though struck dead
The traffic of the road flows on
As travellers pass beside our head
Till through the dust-haze of midday
The winding road becomes the Way.
A road that leads beyond ourselves
Up through the mountain paths of grace
A pilgrimage within the heart
In which we tread the paths of faith
Where freed from program, map or goad
Truth walks beside us on the road.
© Roger Wagner
‘Sacred Allegory’ is related to a large picture of the same title, a study for which will be in Everywhere is Heaven: Stanley Spencer & Roger Wagner at the Stanley Spencer Gallery, Cookham, 9 November 2023–24 March 2024. ‘The Road to Damascus’ relates to a picture in the newly opened Faith Museum at Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland.