If there is any holy book so close
\nto embodying poetry, it is the Book of Kells,
\nthat sacred collection of the four Gospels,
\nat least those agreed on by Mother Church,
\nwho is not my mother, its God not my God.<\/p>\n
The Book, though, is worth more than twice
\nits weight in gold, filled with the richest
\nof illuminations, mystical figures, symbols,
\nall any ‘God’ might desire, and any demon, too.
\nMade by men who prayed, for men who coveted,<\/p>\n
as possession was more important than devotion,
\nand he who held it wished only to keep it
\nfor himself, to exhibit it with pride to
\nthose who could not read, who believed that
\n‘God’ was exalted, everlasting, and impartial,<\/p>\n
and that it was ‘His’ hand that calligraphed
\nthe letters, guided the brushes of the monks,
\nstretched and purified the vellum. Anyone
\nwho turned its pages became holy, but the Book
\nitself is modest, venerable, and hidden.<\/p>\n
There is nothing like religion to divide
\neverything that can be found under the sky.
\nThe Book of Kells may be admired but not
\ntouched, venerated but not read. I would like
\nto know if one day it, too, will turn to dust.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If there is any holy book so close to embodying poetry, it is the Book of Kells, that sacred collection of the four Gospels, at least those agreed on by Mother Church, who is not my mother, its God not my God. The Book, though,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94807"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97288,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94807\/revisions\/97288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}