Inspiring Awe

As a truly inspired metaphor
for the sacred and the sublime
the purpose-built edifice in its
ancient and wise use of natural
resources of stone and wood
towered in its benevolent grace
over aspirations of those anxious
to meet the divine through those
intermediaries bringing people
close to the holy spirit they had
venerated from cradle to grave.
Its spire reached to the heavens
a gift of faith and beauty from 
humanity to their creator. The 
ancient cathedral inspired awe 
and a renewal of pledges for 
believers even as it drew others
with no personal investment in 
belief, thronging to its famed site
to admire form and not function
for its architecture spoke of 
human ingenuity and piety
one quality ascribed to ambition
the other to beatific exaltation.