Thursday, December 6, 2007

Joy to the World

(A paraphrase of Psalm 98)

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing.

Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love.
---Isaac Watts, 1719

Monday, December 3, 2007

Joseph the Faithful Carpenter


Joseph, the Faithful Carpenter 
Ponders the new he keeps concealed:
His bride-to-be in found with child— 
A father’s name is not revealed. 

 As Joseph slumbers fitfully 
An angel enters Joseph’s dream 
To tell him that this comes from God 
And things are not as they may seem: 

 “O, Joseph, banish all your fears 
And take Young Mary as your wife 
And be a father to God’s child 
Who comes to share in human life.” 

Good Joseph, born of David’s line 
(Which matters not in days of Rome) 
Bequeaths a human royalty 
And gives the Boy a godly home. 

A jealous Herod fears this King,
So Joseph takes them speedily 
To Egypt, where again he works, 
To care for his small family. 

 An angel tells that Herod’s dead, 
So Joseph brings them all back home; 
He brings them to quaint Nazareth 
And raises God’s Son as his own.
---C. Marie Byars, 1999 (c)

Sunday, October 21, 2007

November

Besides the autumn poets sing,
A few prosaic* days
A little this side of snow
And that side of the haze.

A few incisive mornings**,
A few ascetic*** eyes,---
Gone Mr. Bryant's golden-rod****
And Mr. Thomson's sheaves. . .*****

Perhaps a squirrel may remain,
My sentiments to share.
Grant me, O Lord, a sunny mind,
Thy windy will to bear!******
---Emily Dickinson

*Prosaic: plain-language, ordinary, dull, lacking poetry
**The cold, frosty mornings tell you quite clearly winter's on the way
***Ascetic eyes---stoic, living without pleasures; people who are out aren't out to absorb the beauties which have faded
****Goldenrod: a yellow-flowering stalky plant related to daisies & etc.
*****The neighbor's bunches of grain are taken inside the barn now for protection & use
******Yes, God's will is to be gracious; but in this sin-tainted world, the nature He oversees has imperfections, such as cold, blustery winds; at some point we do better to accept that His will can sometimes seem unpleasant

Monday, October 1, 2007

Pied* Beauty

Glory be to God for dappled things, 
For skies of couple-color as a brindled cow, 
For rose-moles in stipple** upon trout that swim. 
Fresh-firecoal chestnut falls***, finches' wings; 
Landscape plotted and pieced---fold, fallow, and plough; 
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim. 
All things counter, spare, original, strange; 
Whatever is fickle, freckled, (who knows how?) 
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim; 
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise Him.
---Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1877 
*Pied: Having patches of more than one color; i.e. the "Pied Piper" **Rose-colored dots or flecks ***Fallen chestnuts, red as burning coals

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Spring and Fall

to a young child
Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves like the things of man, you 
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you? 
Ah, as the heart grows older 
It will come to such sights colder 
By and by, nor spare a sigh 
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal* lie**;
And yet you will weep and know why***.
Now no matter, child, the name: 
Sorrows springs are the same. 
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed, 
What heart heard of, ghost guessed****: 
It was the blight man was born for.
It is Margaret you mourn for. ---Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1880 

"Leafmeal"; akin to "piecemeal", a work coined by Hopkins **although Margaret might someday see a whole LOT ('worlds') of leaves laying around decaying, ***when she someday does, she will know why it moves her: the decay of leaves triggers thoughts of her own mortality ****before she had expressed it or heard it expressed, Margaret's own inner spirit knew the truth of this

Friday, September 14, 2007

FALL

I'm waiting for fall to come:
For leaves to fall,
For mists to blow,
For winds to call,
For birds to go,
And then I'll know it's fall.

---Anonymous [makes the elementary school rounds]

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Lutheran Ladies' Laugh

Martin Luther married a woman named "Katharine." His early side-kick, Philip Melanchthon, also married a woman named "Katharine." Mrs. Melanchthon's maiden name had been "Katharine Krapp*." ---No wonder she wanted to get married, even if she had to acquire such a clunky new last name & a kind of wimpy-looking husband!!!

"Krapp" is actually a German word for "red dye." The ancestors probably moved into the middle class by selling this. Katharine's farther was the mayor of Wittenberg. Yes, Mayor Krapp, not to be confused with Major Crap, which you find all over the internet!!!

Technorati Labels

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

The Dirty Floor

[This is technically an analogy. Like all, it has its limitations.]

Somtimes people ask me, "Why do you consider Christianity so special or unique? After all, most of the world's great religions have fine moral codes." (Of course, these people are either not Christians at all or very loose or lapsed in their relationship to Him.) So I agree with them that that is true, but the primary thing about Christianity is not the fine moral code.
I give them this to think on:"When you were very young and tracked dirt in on the nice, clean kitchen floor, how did your mom react? Did she say, 'That's okay, honey, I love you so much that I'll ignore the dirt. We'll all just get along fine ignoring it.'???" Of course not!" [No one's ever said "Yes" to this---what a dump you'd live in if your mom were like that.] "
"And your mom knew you couldn't clean up the mess on your own. So, what did your mom do? She rolled up her sleeves* and cleaned up your mess on her own.""That's how it is with God and sin. God can even less stand to live with the dirt of sinfulness than your mom could with that dirty floor. [Old Testament: 'unclean' was how they often expressed sin or sinfulness.] God is so holy He can't even stand one speck of dirt in His presence---not the tiniest thing. And we're not capable of cleaning our mess up, either. So, God 'rolled up His sleeves'*, became one of us (Jesus Christ) and cleaned up that mess (dying on the cross to pay back Himself for the cost of our sins). "If you grasp this idea first, then nature really properly can become a teaching tool for you. Because then you will know what is real, and you can relate what you take in with your senses back to the truth of Jesus Christ.
*"[Yahweh] saw that there was no one. . . to intercede; so His own arm worked salvation for Him." (Isaiah 60:16)

Saturday, September 1, 2007

No Separation

For I have become persuaded that
OO-tuh THAHN-ah-toss OO-tuh zow-AY
(Neither death nor life)
OO-tuh AHNG-ell-oy Oh-tuh arCH-EYE
(Neither angels nor principalities)
OO-tuh en-es-TOW-tah OO-tuh MELL-on-tah
(Neither things present nor things to come)
OO-tuh dy-NA-mice
(Nor, yet, powers),
OO-tuh HYPS-oh-mah OO-tuh BATH-oss
(Neither height nor depth)
OO-tuh tiss KTISS-iss hett-AIR-ah
(Nor, yet, any other created thing)
Shall be able to separate us from the Love of God
Which is in Christ Jesus, Our Lord.

---St. Paul, Romans 8: 38-39

Technorati Labels

The "Poe" College Student

Once upon a midnight dreary
While I pondered weak and weary
O'er forgotten volumes literary,
Having no time to go and make merry
As the words on the page grew small and bleary
And thoughts of "Dreamland" warm and cheery:
I, finding myself no longer wary
Let out a shriek that was really quite scary:
Quoth my raving, "Nevermore!"
---C. Marie Byars, 1985

Technorati Labels

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Joyful, Joyful We Adore You


Joyful, joyful, we adore You, 
God of glory, Lord of love
Make us bloom like flow'rs before You, 
Opening to our Sun* above. 
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness
Drive despair and gloom away; 
Giver of immortal gladness, 
Fill us with the light of day

All Your works with joy surround You, 
Earth and heaven reflect Your rays, 
Stars and angels sing around You, 
Center of unbroken praise. 
Field and forest, vale and mountain
Flow'ring meadow, cooling dew
Singing bird and flowing fountain 
Call us to rejoice in You. 

You are giving and forgiving, 
Ever blessing, ever blessed, 
Wellspring of the joy of living, 
Ocean depth of happy rest! 
God our Father, Christ our Brother, 
With the Holy Spirit One; 
Teach us how to love each other, 
Selflessly as You have done. 

 Mortals, join the happy chorus, 
Which the morning stars began
Father love is reigning o’er us, 
Christian love binds man to man. 
Ever singing, march we onward, 
Victors in the midst of strife, 
Joyful music leads us onward 
In the triumph song of life. 

---Henry van Dyke, 1907, 1911; adapted cmb 1990, 2007 
*Often a metaphor for Jesus "the 'Sun' of Righteousness; the 'Son' of God (Malachi)

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Secrets

The skies can't keep their secret!
They tell it to the hills---
The hills just tell the orchards---
And they the daffodils!

A bird, by chance, that goes that way
Soft overheard the whole.
If I should bribe the little bird,
Who knows but she would tell?

I think I won't, however,
It's finer not to know;
If summer were an axiom*,
What sorcery had snow?**

So keep your secret, Father!
I would not, if I could,
Know what the sapphire fellows do,
In Your new-fashioned world!***
---Emily Dickinson

*Axiom--a generally accepted truth, a universal wisdom
**If summer seems like a spiritual teacher & I think I learn all from it, what power does winter have to show me anything?
***I'd rather be surprised by what purpose everything will have in heaven than to try and understand all that now in this life

Technorati Labels

God's Grandeur

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod (1)?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod(2).

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs--
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent (3)
World broods (4) with warm breast
                 and with ah! bright wings (5).


---Gerard Manley Hopkins, , 1877
(1) Psalm 2:9. Jesus wields a rod to smash prideful kings.
(2) Shod feet. The loss of pristine innocence, the need to be clothed after sin entered the world.(3) Bent world. (a) tired (b) bent but not broken; crooked, inperfect (c) curved, as an egg over which the Spirit broods
(4) Brooding of the Holy Spirit---see Genesis 1.
(5) As one turns from the dark west horizon (earth's tiredness, coming as a result of man's sin) back to the eastern horizon, where the sun is rising, he sees the promise of a new day under the Spirit's care. This borrows from the Bible's Dove symbolism (breast and wings), which are bright and colorful as the beautiful sunrise.

The Spirit "brooded over the waters", in a sense, at Jesus' baptism, also.  In choosing colors for these, I was mindful that the Jordan River is muddy & turgid, but I also wanted it to still look like "water" to the casual observer. Due to the way the 2nd picture drew the Holy Spirit coming, I made a choice to have rainbow-like light below Him.  This also reminded me of the "ah! bright wings" of Hopkins' poem.



Though the second picture has more "immature" art, one thing is more accurate:  the Holy Spirit and the voice came after Jesus had come back up out of the water.  The art in this photo, for whatever reasons, is either sunrise or sunset.  (The time of day isn't mentioned in the Bible.)  But it does remind the observer of Hopkins' allusion to sunrise in his poem.

Ode to Joy

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, meekness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control." Galatians 5:22-23.

Hi! I am JOY
A fruit of the Spirit;
I come to all Christians
But am often neglected.
I show up in small ways:
In a child's toothless grin,
In helping an old lady,
In a baby's slobbered chin.
I'm always near
Just take time to look---
I inhabit a rainbow
And an uplifting book.
I grace all your learning
When you "see the light."
I'm there when you make peace
And cool down a fight.
I'm among friends
Who love to go fishing,
Just drinking a beer*
And talking and wishing. . .
I brightened your folks
Before you were born,
Now I tag-along with YOU
As you weather life's storms.
I give true delight
In Christian commitment;
I pervade your soul
When you learn contentment.
I dance through creation
And make the stars twinkle
And fill the dry ground
When rain starts to sprinkle.


I'm there in all seasons
I love them ALL best.
After a day of hard work
Together we rest.
I'm the lush grass that tickles 
Your comfortable bare feet.
I enhance the mem'ries
When old buddies meet.


Sitting in church
I keep you awake
No matter how long
The service may take.
I'm there in fond mem'ries
You dwell on from home;
I hid in that pun
That caused you to groan.
I delight in your discovery
Of just Whose you are;
When you LIKE who He made you
Indeed we've come far!
I haunted the Maker
Before He made time;
When all was pronounced good,
The pleasure was mine.
I bestowed warmth upon earth
At Easter's SON-rise;
I'll escort you to heaven
When someday YOU rise!
I'm happy we've met,
I'll be a good friend;
I'll always be with you
My gifts NEVER end!"

A cheerful heart is good medicine,
But a broken spirit dries up the bones." Proverbs 17:22
---C. Marie Byars, 1984

*or "Coke"




Just for Fun

BANE & WOE

Naughty, naughty, Poison Ivy:
Touch my skin and make me hive-y.
Blotchy skin and splotchy face:
Itchy, itchy every place!
Should have looked a little closer,
Maybe purchased from a grocer;
Should have brought a field guide:
Now I've got that stuff inside!
Thought I knew the out-of-doors---
Wandered over hills and moors---
Now I think I'll stay at home:
'Til tomorrow---then I'll roam.
---C. Marie Byars, 1986

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Summer in Scripture

You set all the earth's bounds;
Summer and Winter---You made them. (Psalm 74:17)

[David confessed to God],
"For day and night was Your hand heavy upon me;
My juice* left in the droughts of summer.
I acknowledged my sin unto You,
And my iniquity I did not cover up.
I said, 'I will confess my transgressions unto Yahweh',
And You forgave the iniquities of my sin." (Ps. 32:4-5)

[God said to Noah after the Flood],
"Through all the days of the earth,
Neither Seedtime or Harvest,
Neither Cold or Heat,
Neither Summer or Winter,
Neither Day or Night
Shall take a 'sabbath-rest.'" (Genesis 8:22)

And the earth shall end,
And the seasons, too.
Heaven shall boast the best of each season
At every time, all the time.
And the blossoms of our confession and forgiveness
Will unfold fully and perfectly,
Where our perfect bodies will live in a perfected nature,
And the perfection of our love
At last reflects that of the Creator
And Savior who have always loved us.

*A metaphor, as the juices of a fruit dry up under constantly baking heat

Moonrise

I awoke in the Midsummer not-to-call night,
in the white and the walk of the morning*:
The moon, dwindled and thinned to the fringe
of a fingernail** held to the candle,
Or paring of paradisaical fruit,***
lovely in waning but lustreless. . .
This was the prized, the desirable sight,
unsought, presented so easily,
Parted me leaf and leaf****, divided me,
eyelid and eyelid of slumber.
---Gerard Manley Hopkins; June, 1876

*A moon just before the new moon will come up just before sun up
**Slim crescent moon, seeming as translucent as a fingernail held up in front of a candle in a dark room (a waning moon)
***Fruit parings also seem translucent; reminds one of the "waning" of the fruit of paradise after sin
****The "magic" of this night cut right through the poet, as if leaves of a book or of a tree parting from each other, then his eyelids were parted from his eyes as he could no longer sleep with such a "spell" on his room


Technorati Labels

Nature's Changes

The springtime's pallid* landscape
Will glow like bright bouquet,
Though drifted deep in parian**
The village lies today.

The lilacs, bending many a year,
With purple load will hang;
The bees will not forget the tune
Their old forefathers sang.

The rose will redden in the bog,
The aster on the hill
Her everlasting fashion set,
And covenant gentians frill,

Till summer unfolds her miracle
As women do their gown,
Or priests adjust the symbols***
When sacrament is done.
---Emily Dickinson

*Pallid: pale, dull; lacking in liveliness
**Parian: like marble from the island of Paros (late spring snow blanket)
***No, I don't believe in a merely symbolic Lord's Supper

Sunday, April 29, 2007

May-Flower

Pink, small, and punctual
Aromatic, low,
Covert in April,
Candid in May,

Dear to the moss,
Known by the knoll
Next to the robin
In every soul.

Bold little beauty,
Bedecked with thee,
Nature forswears
Antiquity.
---Emily Dickinson

Technorati Labels

Peace

When will you ever, Peace, wild wooddove, shy wings shut,
Your round me roaming end, and under be my boughs?
When, when, Peace, will you, Peace?
I'll not play hypocrite
To my own heart: I yield you do come sometimes; but
That piecemeal peace is poor peace. What pure peace allows
Alarms of wars, the daunting wars, the death of it?

O surely, reaving Peace, my Lord should leave in lieu
Some good! And so he does leave Patience exquisite,
That plumes* to Peace thereafter. And when Peace does house**
He comes with work to do, he does not come to coo,
He comes to brood and sit.***
---Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1879

*plumes out, grows into a full-fledged bird
**make a dwelling
***to hatch something new & more special


Technorati Labels

[Patience]

Patience, hard thing! the hard thing but to pray,
But bid for, Patience is! Patience who asks
Wants war, wants wounds; weary his time, his tasks;
To do without, take tosses, and obey.*

Rare patience roots in these, and, these away,
Nowhere. Natural heart's ivy, Patience masks**
Our ruins of wrecked purpose. There she basks
Purple eyes*** and seas of liquid leaves all day.

We hear our hearts grate on themselves: it kills
To bruise them dearer. Yet the rebellious wills
Of us we do bid God bend to him even so.
And where is He who more and more distills
Delicious kindness?-- He is patient. Patience fills
His crisp combs****, and that comes those ways we know.
---Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1885

*we don't like to be 'patient' waiting for 'patience'; we strive & try to make it happen
**ivy covers over ruined homes & covers the cracks beneath
***berries
****God's sweet patience, like honeycombs


Technorati Labels

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

The Bible's Trees

The trees of Yahweh are full,
The cedars of Lebanon which He planted,
Where the birds make their nests:
The stork has her home in the cypress trees. 
[Psalm 104: 16-17]

"The stump of Jesse shall grow anew, " [promised Yahweh]
"And a Sprout [Jesus] from the root shall bear fruit.
And upon Him shall rest the Spirit of Yahweh:
The Spirit of Wisdom and of Understanding,
The Spirit of Counsel and of Might,
The Spirit of Knowledge and of the Fear of Yahweh." 
[Isaiah 11:1-3a]

"Cursed be any man who hangs on a tree." 
[Deuteronomy 21:22; Galatians 3:13]
"But I, when I am lifted up from the earth,
I, Jesus, shall draw all people unto myself." [John 12:32]

(The righteous man) is like a tree,
Which has been planted by streams of water,
Which gives its fruit in its proper time.
Its leaf does not wither:
Whatever it does will prosper. [Ps. 1:3]

The trees of the forest will sing for joy before Yahweh,
For He comes to judge the earth. [I Chronicles 16:33]

"You will go forth in joy," [promises Yahweh]
And be lead forth in peace. . .
The trees of the fields will clap their hands.
Rather than the thorn, the cypress will come up;
Rather than the brier, the myrtle will come up.
And all this will be for the sake of Yahweh's Name,
An everlasting sign which will not be destroyed." [fr. Is. 55:12-13]
(original translations)

Biblical Precipitation

Praise Yahweh from the earth:
Fire and hail, snow and clouds,
Storm winds doing His will. ..
Let them praise the Name of Yahweh,
For His Name alone is exalted;
His splendor is above the earth and heavens. [Psalm 148: 7a, 8, 13]

"God's voice thunders with marvelous things." [Young Elihu said.]
"He does great things we cannot know deeply.
For to the snow He says, 'Fall on the earth',
And to the rain shower, 'Be mighty torrents.'. . .
The animal goes into a lair
And settles down in its dens,
From the Breath of God is ice given, and the broad waters are frozen,
He also loads the cumulus clouds with moisture;
Clouds disperse His lightning. .." [Job 37:5-6, 8-11]

He sends forth His command to the earth;
His word runs swiftly forth.
He dispenses snow as wool;
He scatters hoar-frost as ashes.
He hurls His hail as fragments---
Who can stand before His icy cold?
He sends forth His world and melts them;
He causes His wind to blow, and the waters flow. [Ps. 147;15-18]

"For just as the rain comes down," [says Yahweh]
"And the snow from the heavens,
And does not return there
Without watering the earth,
Causing it to sprout
So that it yields seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
Thus is My Word which goes forth from My mouth:
It does not return void unto Me
But does what I have desired
And advances those things for which I sent it." [Isaiah 55:10-11]
(original translations)

(This April, much of the United States is vacillating between these weather conditions!)

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Death Be Not Proud

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou are not so:
For those who thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death; nor yet canst thou kill me.
From Rest and Sleep, which but thy picture be,
Much more pleasure than from thee must flow;
And soonest our best men with thee do go---
Rest of their bones and souls' delivery!
Thou'rt slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than they stroke. Why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And Death shall be no more: Death thou shalt die!
---John Donne (alt.)

Easter


Break the box and shed the nard*;
Stop not now to count the cost;
Hither bring pearl, opal, sard;
Reck not what the poor have lost;
Upon Christ throw all away:
Know ye, this is Easter Day.

Gather gladness from the skies;
Take a lesson from the ground;
Flowers do ope their heavenward eyes
And a Spring-time joy have found;
Earth throws Winter's robes away,
Decks herself for Easter Day.

Seek God's house in happy throng;
Crowded let His table be;
Mingle praises, payer and song,
Singing to the Trinity.
Henceforth let your souls alway
Make each morn an Easter Day.

---Gerard Manley Hopkins

*the woman in the Gospels who anointed Jesus's feet with expensive perfume

Queen Creek near Globe, AZ



Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Crossing the Bar*

Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar*,
When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home**.

Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell;
When I embark;

For thou' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far**;
I hope to see my Pilot*** face to face
When I have crossed the bar.*
---Alfred, Lord Tennyson

*Sandbar; when a ship leaves the deep water to go towards shore, it can actually be hazardous and perilous
**After a long-life's journey, some of which may unfortunately have taken us further away from God at times, the Christian longs to "go home to God"
***A nautical pilot guides water craft safely through harbors and to shore; Jesus is that pilot

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

The World is Too Much with Us

[Technically, the poet doesn't write this one in a Christian vein. He even borrows pagan mythology. But Wordsworth was Christian, and this is a great commentary on modern materialism.]

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
The sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune,
It moves us not. ---Great God! I'd rather be
A pagan suckled in a creed outworn.
So might I , standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn."
William Wordsworth

Clouds & Scripture

"See, [Jesus] comes with the clouds,
And every eye shall see Him,
even as many as pierced Him;
And all the tribes of the earth shall mourn." (Revelation 1:7)
"See, He will advance like the clouds,
And His chariots like a whirlwind,
His horses are swifter than eagles.
Woe to us, for we are plundered!" (Jeremiah 4:13)
"You have clothed Yourself with a cloud
So that prayer cannot get through." (Lamentations 3:44)
"'I [God] have swept away as a cumulus cloud your offenses
And as a cloud your sins.
Return to Me,
For I have redeemed you.'" (Isaiah 44:22)
---original translations

The Spirit & Nature in Scripture

"By the word of Yahweh were the heavens made,
And all their hosts by the Spirit of His mouth." (Psalm 33:6)
"You send forth Your Spirit, they are created;
And You renew the face of the earth." (Ps. 104:30)
-----original translations

Fairest Lord Jesus

Fair are the meadows,
Fair are the woodlands,
Robed in flow'rs of blooming spring;
Jesus is fairer;
Jesus is purer;
He makes our sorr'wing spirits sing.
---ancient hymn text

Mountains in Scripture

"I will lift up my eyes unto the hills
From whence comes my help." (Psalm 121:1)
"Great is Yahweh
And greatly to be praised
In the city of our God,
The mountain of His holiness." (Ps. 48:1)
"In [His] hands are the depths of the earth;
And the height of the hills are His." (Ps. 95:4)
---original translations

From Sea to Dark Dead Sea

[This poem is about the modern American mindset and its influence upon the Church. It does not reflect a crushing depression on the part of the poetess.]

The Jordan in but never out,
So knowledge takes in me such route
In brackish waters to brood about
The suppression of true freedom's shout---
The Dead Sea.

At lowest point, then, here I sit.
The deepest depression of deep'ning rift.
The deep'ning gloom---and shall it lift?
Integrity's shroud, hides Holy Writ. . .
Apathy.

As just-hatched bird by Nature bred
Lives just to squawk and so be fed
I now by histr'y do so defend
By justified means I reach this end:
The Bland Me.

I lived through day, I lived through night;
I lived through love, I lived through fright;
I turned inside to put to flight
The hopeless failures from crueller sight:
The Dead Me.

Whether by mindless shallowness
Or endless, stale analysis,
In Sophist and in Hedonist
The fear of Feeling here exists:
The fear "to be."

On me they float but can't dive in:
Cannot drown but cannot swim.
Advance in skills. . .Retreat within. . .
A merry-go-round with fatal spin. . .
Technology?!?!

Oh, to be that other sea,
Parted to let young Israel free,
Closed to drown out cruelty,
Fluid with fresh-faced vitality:
The Red Sea!!!

-----C. Marie Byars, 1987

Technorati Labels

Te Deum Laudamus

("We Praise You, O God", an ancient liturgical text)

We praise You, O God; We acknowledge You to be the Lord.
All the earth worships You, O Father Everlasting.
To You all angels cry aloud, the heavens and all the powers therein;
To the the cherubim and seraphim continually call out.

The noble army of the martyrs praises You:
The Holy Church throughout all the world acknowledges You,
O Father of infinite majesty, along with Your true and venerable only Son,
And, also, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.

When You took it upon Yourself to deliver humanity,
You humbled Yourself to be born of a virgin.
When You had overcome the darkness of death,
You opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all believers.

We pray You, therefore, to help Your servants,
Those whom You have redeemed by Your precious blood.
Make us to be counted as Your saints
In glory everlasting.

O Lord, save Your people and bless Your inheritance.
Govern them and lift them up forever.
Day by day we glorify You,
And we worship Your name forever in unending ages.

My Redeemer Liveth

This isn't very accurate to the Hebrew wording. But it's absolutely beautiful:

"I know that my Redeemer liveth,
And that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
And though after my skin worms destroy my body,
Yet in my flesh shall I see God:
Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold,
And not another." Job 19:25-27 KJV

Martin Luther ended this section with: "Ich selbst werde ihn sehen, meine Augen werden ihn schauen und kein Fremder." Or: "I myself shall see Him, my eyes shall look upon Him, and not some stranger." This is a little closer to Hebrew, too, and the "not some stranger" is a really cool way of emphasizing that little ol' me will be put back together from my ground up atoms and molecules to look upon Christ!!!

Wildernesses [for Lent/Advent]

A message envelopes me, 
Permeating my whole person: 
The disembodied preaching, 
The tones of a tameless, timeless wind, 
Surge deep into my searching soul, 
As if, "A voice of one crying: 
'In the wilderness clear out the way of Yahweh; 
Make straight in the desert-plain 
A highway for our God.'" (Isaiah 40:3)* 

Ridge follows ridge into the horizon, 
Their shadows and mountain hues 
Growing hazy, at last to melt at the world's watery edge.
Ages old, yet seeming no older than I: 
Wind-whipped, scarred and, yet, still enduring. 

Forlorn, wild, untouchable seems this place... 
The lonely sadness of a lingering coyote howl 
Harmonizes the wind's haunting melody, 
Eerie to all but those who know and love such music, 
Whose very life and sustenance are this desert: 

Ground squirrels and kangaroo rats, 
Cacti and sagebrush, 
Rattlers, gnarly reptiles and other desert-dwellers 
Make peace with this wilderness, 
Surviving and thriving. 

In such a place settled Abraham, 
Blessed by Yahweh, prospering as a tent-dweller. 
Through such barrenness 
Moses led the multitudes of Israel. 
Elijah first retreated to the desert 
To find relief from wickedness. 

Christ came to the wastelands 
To fast His forty days; 
Here to be tempted, here to triumph; 
Here to prepare His soul 
For the rugged ministry ahead. 

And, so, a still, small voice (I Kings 19:12-13) 
Whispers softly inside me: 
" 'In the wilderness clear out the way of Yahweh; 
Make straight in the desert-plain 
A highway for our God.'"* 

---C. Marie Byars, November 1986 Ft. Irwin, CA


*original re-translations from the Hebrew Bible; somewhat more literal and, hopefully, more in line with poetic work