Monday, October 25, 2010

Pied Beauty (Redux)


Always nice to repeat some of Hopkins work:

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



 

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Beside Still Waters


The LORD [Yahweh] is my shepherd; 
I shall not [be in] want. 
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: 
He leadeth me beside the still waters.** 
He restoreth my soul: 
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; 
Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. 
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. 
----King David; Psalm 23 KJV* 

*I normally don't read the King James Version anymore, but the etched-in beauty of this older version captivated me. 
**Recently revisiting this Psalm (which, actually, is not my "favorite" of the Psalms, unlike many other people), I emphasized the "still waters" and "restoring my soul" because of some great, deep, long-sought but elusive peace which He recently brought to me & which I pray continues through the next leg of life's journey.