Splendor unmatchable

Is it possible for something – a piece of music, a picture, a poem – to inspire one so much it is impossible to do other than write or draw or sing?

Of course it is. But what if something is so magnificent that I can’t do other than make something of my own - but so beautiful that nothing I can do is worthy of its splendor?

I am listening to ‘Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis’ by Ralph Vaughan Williams and it is so beautiful I HAVE to write something or do something of equal inspiration, but at the same time, how is anything I write ever going to match the swell of glorious sound, the joyful solemnity? I am once again reminded of my own smallness in the face of glory beyond my grasp or knowledge – no ability to capture its beauty in any way other than these stilted, small and insufficient words.

Oh, God. How will I ever be worthy of your utter radiance?

I never will be. I can only try to make my own weak, watery imitation of the beauty that you create so easily. I am trying so hard to make my creations worthy of you, the Master Craftsman, who gave me the ability to create, In Your Image – but it will never reach the glory that it could be. This is, I suppose, one of the penalties for being merely human. Imperfect, and always so. Yet, Vaughan Williams reached much closer than I ever could. R.S. Thomas even, in his endless questions, the darkness of his words, managed it. Stephanie Pui-mun Law from DeviantArt, Susan Seddon Boulet, artists who capture the true beauty my mind could never see, reach closer to you than I can, even if they don’t know it. I suppose I must do no other than try, and try again, until my words, my drawings, my machinations, begin to reveal your beauty if only in the weakest light. What else can I do?