Divine Hiddenness

Divine Hiddenness

Ryan Keating

Where is the cloudy neon sign
The audible astral adhan
The inner voice persuading
That you stand far off
And hide yourself in times of trouble?

All the non-resistant non-believers
Ask to see with opened eyes
The one who might be hiding in the garden
Among the trees and planets answering
Too quietly for them to hear.

Blind to unsurpassable greatness
My deficiency is reason.
My disfunction is cognitive.
And I cannot grasp what I cannot hold
And I cannot want to see you more

Or, less than a blunt demonstration
Is just what shapes my soul for wanting
To believe behind the trees
In subtle depth and freedom
Seeking to let what will be done

Not mine
Which cannot grasp what it cannot hold
Or hear beyond the planets revealing
All the seekers’ hearts inscrutable
Standing in the garden with you, hidden.

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Ryan Keating
Poet & Pastor

Ryan Keating is a pastor, teacher, winemaker, and coffee roaster living in Cyprus. His writing has appeared in publications such as Christian Century, Evangelical Missions Quarterly, Öncül, and Miras Dergi, where he is a regular contributor in English and Turkish.

Photography by Daniele Colucci