Goblet and Chalice
Poet: Alireza Bemanian
|December 19, 2025
© www.bemanian.com
The goblet and chalice, the prize and trophy,
plaque and crown fill and meet,
enlisted and fastened, to satiate and pervade.
To humble and mumble to the tone of the chirping chants,
Eagerly and keenly lingering to suffuse and infuse,
elevating the murmur of the orchestrated symphonies,
and, to susurrating, the bestowed singings,
the blooming of the flowers, and sustenance of the hissing hums.
The caravan of contentment,
parade of indulgence, procession of tolerance,
and the column of pardon and absolution,
growl and snarl, roll and howl,
while, the rumble and roar dumbfound, stagger and astound.
Timidity of the moments, nervousness of the cores and mettles,
hesitations, vacillations, and pauses,
the snarls and scowls, echo of the hollow drums,
confirm the portraits, pinpointing flickering stars.
the disinclinations and reluctances, challenge and confront,
while contests, enthralling rushes, the tears and ruptures,
ignite back draws, gagging the beams, the span of dreams.
Unfold the era, beguile, lure, and woo,
the flows and drifts, the dwarfs and glooms,
render and decree,
salute of gestures, the refrains and mantras,
the chants and chaunts, embark the mantle.
conjured and educed, the emanating streams,
carriers of the silent springs, bubbles and gurgles,
are destined and ordained,
contribute and interpose, the excursion, pilgrimage.
pearl and rejoice not to culminate nor conclude,
the whales submerge and immerse,
eagles spread the wings,
it is all within the oceans of the unruffled and serene.
The heaps and depths, mountains and oceans,
importune, implore, and request,
resonations and reverberations,
the valleys, gorges, and dales,
relent, surrender, and yield.
not to degrade and debase, or humble and disgrace—
though, to picket and shield, to saturate and spread,
the milieus, the settings, spectacles, and sights,
transpose, rearrange, and reorder.
While, dawns are connoted and presaged,
pureness and propriety, content and gist,
stand and ensue, devotions fulfill the sea.
no wonder the oceans are hold up to the rim.
Themes & Interpretations
Core Philosophy
Spiritual Alchemy and the Inner Vessel
The poem explores the human condition as a container that must transition from being filled with prizes and trophies (external validation) to devotions and pureness (internal essence). The contrasting symbols of the secular Goblet and the sacred Chalice anchor this journey of spiritual alchemy — two vessels, two names, one capacity.
The Structural Arc
From Conscription to Devotion
The arc begins with the self that is “enlisted and fastened” to the performance of achievement, moves through chaotic hesitations and ruptures, peaks with total mastery in “the unruffled and serene,” and concludes with the breathtaking transposition where the ocean’s content is revealed to be devotion itself — held up to the rim.
Acoustic Ontology
Sound as Spiritual Map
Uniquely, the poem renders the entire spiritual journey through sound rather than light: chirping chants give way to susurrating, then to bubbles and gurgles, then to the resonations of a yielding landscape, and finally to the silent fullness of the unruffled and serene. The soul’s development is a transformation of its relationship to sound.
Comparative Context
Sufi Baqā and Heideggerian Thingness
The poem brilliantly reverses the Sufi concept of Fanā (self-annihilation in the divine ocean) into a radical Baqā (subsistence) where the ocean is held within the soul. This pairs with Heidegger’s insight that the vessel is defined not by its clay but by its capacity to hold — the jug’s thingness is its emptiness fulfilled by devotion.
The Ontological Conclusion
Grammar Reordered to Express the Inexpressible
The final line’s grammatically unusual “hold up” enacts the poem’s ontological defiance: grammar itself is reordered along with reality. The soul is not a vessel attempting to contain the infinite; the infinite is the soul’s devotion, brimming. No wonder the oceans are hold up to the rim.