CHARTRES CATHEDRAL

THE GLORY of God’s Gospel glows with light;
Pilgrim sees growing from green on the ground
A tall temple of stone hewn high on a mound.
Her sculptured craft astounds his purblind sight,
He falls down, surrendered, with all of his might.
He’s awed by the magic charms of her sound,
Angels chant psalms, stained windows shine bright.
It’s New Jerusalem, the City of God re-found.

Each niche tells a legend set in tinted glass,
Radiant rainbow hue, sparkling like dew,
The inward mind knows her message to be true.
Pilgrim feels healed by the visions that pass,
His Soul wakes up, no beam blurs his eye,
Heart’s upraised by her spires, high in the sky.

Her steeples aspire like arrows aimed at God;
Prayers assault her vaults, for heaven’s sought.
The soul’s inflamed to blaze in its earthy clod,
By Saints, who from her oaken pulpit taught.
A medieval miracle, mighty marvel, to behold!
Amazed by the maze on her limestone floor,
Many parables on her painted panes unfold,
We stand in awe before her portal door.

To calmly comprehend the art of Chartres,
Where cryptic Christian chrisms are unveiled.
Start to chart her craft inside your heart.
In such masterly masonry, much is revealed.
Her stained glass windows glow like precious gems,
Showing celestial scenes from which truth doth stem.

Ah Chartres! ‘mystere merveille’, enigmatic book
Of God’s creation, you’re an emblematic sign.
Architectonic is your binding, majestic, divine,
Your pages etched on alchemic glass. So look
For graven keys in carved and buttressed nook.
Christ points the way the saints and martyrs took,
There were miracles, wan water turned to wine,
Wonder of Chartes, may your beauty e'er be mine.

On slabs of limestone lies a cryptic maze
Soul’s riddle, the puzzle in which she’s caught.
Once dancing here, a Master Templar taught
His Masons, the measured steps to freedom’s ways.
In Chartre’s stone arches, clues are given,
Sacred tunes for hymns, wend their way to heaven.

Dig down deeply, dive in one’s Self to find
The Chartres Cathedral inside the inner heart,
The real temple ever bides behind the mind.
Stab the stoney slabs of sleep, and start
To plunge within the cloister well, hold breath
In one’s sanctum sanctorum in the east transept.
Notre Dame de Chartres mirrors the One inside,
The Light Of The World behind the door, doth hide.

So step beyond the Gothic shades, uncover all!
The Kingdom Of Heaven shines within, not out,
Real Chartres shines within one’s heart, so turn about
Into the Self within, where God's Grace doth fall,
Chartres Cathedral, miracle for all to see,
A pilgrimage there may well enlighten thee