Rise with me from ashes
To build and start again
Putting reliance in the Saviour
And not in mortal men
Politicians they shall fail us
The rich seek but there own
But those of faith shall prosper
And achieve an eternal home
While this world seems bleak –
Full of darkness
And troubles seem immense
He will bear His children’s burdens
And true justice He will dispense
Padre
Through obstacles and roadblocks,
Backtrackings and steep stairs
Facing disappointment and heartache
The feeling nobody cares
When disease and disorder
Seem to have won
Remember to still hope
And by thus – overcome
For hope is the tincture
Brewed to relieve
All of these troubles
If in it you believe
I don’t not know if this form has a proper name. It is however my default poetic form using cadence and rhyme to drive it. I don’t know if I ever matured beyond Dr Seuss, but there is something in it that speaks to the inner me.
Padre
Colleen’s last poetry challenge of 2020, is to write a poem about hope, using our favourite poetry form (and on this occasion, it doesn’t have to be syllabic). She asks that we make these poems inspirational to others.
She stipulates that we should avoid negativity and politics.
We are to also tell us why the specific form we chose is our favourite.
In the bleakest of midwinters
On the coldest of cold days
The sun still keeps its promise
And light will have its way
No matter how drear the prospects
Or the forecasts doom and dread
Look for the light at the end of the tunnel
There are better times ahead
Padre
The conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn has just passed after an absence of hundreds of years. Some call this the Christmas Star or the Bethlehem Star. In this year of fires, floods, racial and social unrest, and a world-wide pandemic it is perhaps a time to take stock and to reflect on the story not of this planetary alignment, but of the star of the Gospel account. It was a harbinger of the coming of Emmanuel, God with us. It marked a transition in our relationship with the divine. The age of the Fall of Adam was coming to an end, and a promised saviour, the Messiah had come.
That did not mean that wars and rumours of wars, or fires, floods, and misfortune were coming to an end – 2020 surely shows us that. What it does say is there is a hope that is greater than those trials that is opened to us.
As I was reflecting on this I picked three YouTube videos to share which capture some of my thoughts. The first speaks of the coming of Emmanuel. The other two of the stresses and strains that Mary, the mother of Jesus may have faced in her obedience to God’s call. That obedience in the face of uncertainty and surely fears is a telling example for us all.
I wish all of you a happy Christmas, and pray that what ever the future holds for us, that we might cling to the Emmanuel – God with us.
Padre
A little flickering candle
A small light in the window waits
A tiny glow to guide you
A hope that you might spy it
As you make your way back home
A little flickering candle
An emblem of hopes and dreams
And it is there to guide you
As you follow its tiny beams
Padre
Version from Cold Mountain
The traditional spiritual song Wayfaring Stranger is a great use of the negative phrase used as a prompt by Jim Adams’ for today’s challenge. The song speaks of a heavenly rest where “no” problems of this life will be found. The song has been released by Johnny Cash (whose version I have posted the lyrics), and by Jack White in a version used in the Civil War film Cold Mountain. There is just something haunting about White’s version that makes me prefer it.
Lyrics
I’m just a poor wayfaring stranger
Traveling through this world below
There is no sickness, no toil, nor danger
In that bright land to which I goI’m going there to see my Father
And all my loved ones who’ve gone on
I’m just going over Jordan
I’m just going over homeI know dark clouds will gather ’round me
I know my way is hard and steep
But beauteous fields arise before me
Where God’s redeemed, their vigils keep
I’m going there to see my Mother
She said she’d meet me when I comeSo, I’m just going over Jordan
I’m just going over home
I’m just going over Jordan
I’m just going over home
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Traditional
Padre
——————————-
Things seemed hopeless
Things seemed bleak
Years of effort now crowned by defeat
Why had he left his childhood home
To as an itinerant the land to roam?
Just as all seemed filled with success
Betrayal and death left all plans a mess
But now a claim of a thing beyond belief
Made by comrades – while he suffered grief
How can their statements possibly be true?
For he saw the corpse and the burial too?
And as he said he will never believe
Jesus appeared – all his doubts to relieve
Padre
John 20
August Bible Poems #15
—————————————-
What shall the future show –
What do our fortunes hold?
If wishes really do come true –
Surely our fondest dreams will unfold.
It shall be like a new beginning,
A fresh dawn of peace and light
The rising of the dawn’s new sun –
Filled with the morning‘s glory bright.
The future will bring luscious cheer
Thick red velvet – us – softly surround
Cocooned from threats or fears
All adversity to confound.
No more – shall life be terra-cotta baked
Filled with bluffs and lies
But honesty shall bloom afresh
Before our very eyes.
______
Padre
The Challenge:
The theme is The Future. The paint chip words and phrases are: morning glory, red velvet, terra-cotta, and bluff. The three angel words are: honesty, light, and peace. Pick at least one of the angel card words to shape your future world and use all four paint chip words as colors.
“Where were you?
Why did you delay?
If you had only been here –
He would have been saved.”*
“I have come in the fullness of time.
Lazarus shall not remain in the grave
His tomb only prefigures mine
And by it – more than Lazarus I will save.”
From Adam to Abraham, Abraham to David,
From David to Zerubbabel and beyond,**
We too like Lazarus – were dead in our sin
But by Jesus’s grave we have won.
Padre
August Bible Poem 12
John 11*
Matthew 1, Luke 3**
Our lives are full of joys and loves
Spring flowers and Summer days
Golden leaves of the Fall
And soft snowflakes among which we did play
And remember also there have been storms
As it might feel in this current malaise
But look up and remember that from storms
We find our new rainbow days
Padre
*Image – Pixabay
For H.S. Monroe’s friend
