​“Adonai” at Storm King, by David M. Katz

'Adonai' (1970-71) by Alexander Liberman -- Storm King Art Center September 2016, photo by Rob Cogswell (USA). Contemporary. (CC BY 2.0)

​“Adonai” at Storm King

I still can barely speak the name.
But to Alexander Liberman,
Born in Kiev in 1912,
It was the kind his audience

Demanded. Later on, he said
That titles meant nothing to him,
That putting one on a work of art
Was like hammering a handle

On to something that could not
Be pinned down. On a nearby hill
His “Adam” stands; not far away,
His “Iliad.”  We took the tram

To a part of the park they call The Meadows,
And to the left we saw what seemed
A giant pile of logs, the collapsed
Remnant of a great estate

On a bombed-out continent. So God
Amounts to six-foot cylinders,
Heavy, hollow, once used for gas,
Rusted then refabricated,

Painted burnt sienna. Two poles
Evoke the portal of a church,
Two the nave, and one is poised
To fall. The heart, from afar, falls

Into the sanctuary at Chartres,
Where Liberman once sat and thought
And gathered up the shapes that could
Suggest to us the name of God.  

David M. Katz

David M. Katz’s books of poems include Stanzas on Oz and Claims of Home, both published by Dos Madres Press. He’s also the author of The Warrior in the Forest, published by House of Keys Press. Poems of his have appeared in Poetry, The Paris Review, The New Criterion, The Hopkins Review, and The Cortland Review.  He is currently working on a new poetry collection, tentatively entitled Money. He lives in New York City and recently retired after a 40-year career as a business journalist and editor. ​