Within the cadences of human speech
……Attentive listeners can sometimes hear
……The rhythm of the wave upon the beach
……Or listen to the music of the spheres.
Within the small sphere of the human eye
……The watcher who knows how to look can see
……A spirit that’s as lofty as the sky
……Or humble as the lover on his knee.
When in the alembic of the human mind
……Imagination boils with memory,
……Such vision with such sound can be combined,
……Far more mysterious than alchemy!
The Philosopher’s Stone we vainly sought of old
……Could never have made such rare and costly gold.
From Stars through the Clouds: The Collected Poetry of Donald T. Williams, 2nd edition (Lantern Hollow Press, 2020). Used by permission.

Donald T. Williams, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Toccoa Falls College, has been slanderously identified as the author of The Devil’s Dictionary of the Christian Faith (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2008), a charge which he neither confirms nor denies. He is certainly the author of a dozen other books including Ninety-Five These for a New Reformation: A Road Map for Post-Evangelical Christianity (Semper Reformanda Publications, 2021), a serious book about theology which also keeps Screwtape up at night.
Citation Information
Donald T. Williams, “Some Real Magic: Taliesin Lectureth in the School of Poets,” An Unexpected Journal: The Imaginative Harvest of Holly Ordway 4, no. 4. (Advent 2021), 171-172.
Direct Link: https://anunexpectedjournal.com/some-real-magic-taliessin-lectureth-in-the-school-of-the-poets