David Hatton & Angelo da Fonseca

David L. Hatton (poem) and Angelo da Fonseca (painting)

 

NO GRAY IN GOD 

The hair of God is never gray
    But always white as snow.
Forever it has been that way—
    It doesn’t change or grow.
At least, in visions this is how
I AM indwells eternal Now.

“But why not blond or brown or red
    Of everlasting youth?”
In white all other colors wed
    And demonstrate the truth
That lesser beauties blessing sight
Are prismed from His Triune Light.

There is no gray in God Divine:
    Of shadow, not a hint.
His very Being draws the line,
    Precise and permanent,
To heal our nature’s shaded night
By separating dark from bright.

His spoken Word in dazzling beams
    Undims the human heart
Or drives the blind to mental schemes
    For tearing it apart.
No grayness in our choices stand
Before the glow of Heaven’s Hand.

Pure whiteness crowning Deity
    Is holiness displayed.
All calls for human piety
    Authentically are made
Straight from the shining Self of One
Whose Light took flesh in Christ, His Son.

— David L. Hatton, 1/11/ 2014

to be in POEMS BETWEEN HERE AND BEYOND
© by David L. Hatton 

*** 

David L. Hatton is a Wesleyan pastor, a registered nurse and a perpetual student of art. His work of helping mothers deliver and breastfeed babies brought him to conclusions identical to those of Edward Knippers before ever seeing his artwork.   

Angelo da Fonseca (1902-1967) is one of the best known Christian painters of India. 

‘We, who have embraced Christianity for centuries, have given up our painting, music and architecture. Having labelled them ‘paganism’, we have turned to the products of Europe. I hope in future we shall learn to treasure what is our birth-right and receive it in our churches and homes.’ In: Son of Man. Pictures and Carvings by Indian, African and Chinese Artists, The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel – Westminster, 1939. 

For more about Angelo da Fonseca, click here.  

---

More:

- April 2024: Denise Levertov & Ernst Barlach
- January 2024: Wendell Berry and Carol Aust
- November 2023: Luci Shaw & Botticelli
- March 2023: Jill Baumgaertner & Liviu Mocan
- September 2022: The Uncompleted Man
- March 2022: Annukka Laine
- January 2022: Megan Fisher
- November 2021: Luci Shaw & Worku Goshu
- September 2021: Pádraig Ó Tuama & Leo G. Franchi
- May 2021: Malcolm Guite & Unknown
- January 2021: Emily Dickinson & Henri Matisse
- December 2020: Allan Boesak & Harm Visser
- June 2020: Luci Shaw & Sebastian Wien
- November 2019: Dennis O’Driscoll & David Robinson
- June 2019: C.S. Lewis & Wayne Adams
- May 2019: Malcolm Guite & Andrea Mantegna: Ascension
- May 2019: Denise Levertov & Ernst Barlach
- October 2018: Sándor Reményik & Ildikó Mecséri
- August 2018: Abigail Carroll & Caravaggio
- May 2018: Bohuslav Reynek: Poet and Visual Artist
- March 2018: George MacDonald & James Ensor
- January 2018: Wendell Berry & Annukka Laine
- November 2017: Mary Oliver & Pauline Baynes
- August 2017: Ellyn Maybe & Pablo Picasso
- April 2017: Lucy Shaw & Henry Ossawa Tanner
- April 2017: Denise Levertov & Diego Velazquez
- February 2017: David L. Hatton & David L. Hatton
- November 2016: Dennis ODriscoll & David Robinson
- June 2016: Luci Shaw & Marietha Smit
- April 2016: Robert Browning & Pauline Baynes
- March 2016: Wendell Berry & Carol Aust
- January 2016: Dante G. Rossetti & Dante G. Rossetti
- December 2015: Sufjan Stevens & Geertgen tot Sint Jans
- September 2015: Thomas Merton & Andre Racz
- June 2015: Frances Bellerby & Jeltje Hoogenkamp
- March 2015: Christine Perrin & Ted Prescott
- January 2015: Jan Krist & Gor Chahal
- December 2014: Sufjan Stevens & Geertgen tot Sint Jans
- November 2014: David L. Hatton & David L. Hatton
- July 2014: Chris Lorensson & Dylan Clements
- June 2014: Jonathan Evens & Henry Shelton
- April 2014: Gerlind Krause & Worku Goshu
- April 2014: Christine Perrin & Michelangelo
- January 2014: James Weldon Johnson & Aaron Douglas
- January 2014: Hannah Main-van der Kamp & Liviu Mocan
- December 2013: Christine Perrin & Fra Angelico
- December 2013: Luci Shaw & Botticelli
- November 2013: Christine Perrin & Luca Signorelli
- October 2013: Hannah Main-van der Kamp & Tanja Butler
- October 2013: James Weldon Johnson & Aaron Douglas
- October 2013: Marilyn Chandler McEntyre & Johannes Vermeer
- September 2013: The Renewal of Ekphrasis by John Skillen