Walking With Aslan
If I could go, my small hand hidden
in your tangled flame,
feeling strength flow
through a massive frame,
seeing bright tremor
shaken from Light’s face
’til shapes around you glow
— then would it matter, any place
I went with you? What things
the sparks of glory flew
from you to tame?
What lesser beings
walked the other side?
— if, deep and wide,
Life funneled through
my small hand hidden
in your tangled flame?
Isabel Chenot's first poem as a little girl was about marrying her cat Tig when she grew up: she married a good man instead, but kept scribbling poems and stories.
Lately she loves trying to translate lyric, metaphysical Spanish poetry into English.A small first collection of her own poetry is available at: https://animapoetry.uk/
She especially values Gabriela Mistral's 7th 'Decalogue of the Artist', because it reflects the hope of consolation visible in God's handiwork: "The beauty you create shall be known as compassion and shall console the hearts of men."
Lately she loves trying to translate lyric, metaphysical Spanish poetry into English.A small first collection of her own poetry is available at: https://animapoetry.uk/
She especially values Gabriela Mistral's 7th 'Decalogue of the Artist', because it reflects the hope of consolation visible in God's handiwork: "The beauty you create shall be known as compassion and shall console the hearts of men."
Latest posts by Isabel Chenot (see all)
- Consider the Whale… and Herman Melville - December 9, 2020
- Cupped Hands - December 30, 2019
- The Endless Steppe, by Esther Hautzig - June 5, 2019
I love this poem! It’s so beautiful.
That makes me so happy, Evelyn! I’m still learning to draw better lions 🙂 (hopefully!)
— This was not only inspired by Aslan and the stories of Lewis, but by an account in Helen Rosaveare’s ‘Living Faith: Willing to be Stirred as a Pot of Paint’ — where she speaks about walking by a young armed militant in darkness and how afraid she was, but how she told him that a lion walked at her side. Her book is not by and large suitable reading for children (though I think some of the accounts would be suitable to share), but very faith-bracing, albeit at times very difficult, for grown-ups.
Thank you for this. Of course, I’m reminded of The Horse and His Boy, when Aslan guides Shasta along the mountain path in the dark. That’s one of my favorite scenes in all of the Chronicles.
Yes, that is the very Aslan moment I was thinking of. I love that scene very much, where he reveals that all the lions Shasta has been in dread of were himself. It is my favorite moment in Narnia.