America the Beautiful

(These sentiments are more noble---and certainly more Christian*---than modern America deserves. And, yet, pockets of America still live this out beautifully.)

O beautiful, for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace* on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood**,
from sea to shining sea.

Colorado Rockies front range (see below)

O beautiful, for pilgrim feet
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine ev'ry flaw*;
Confirm thy soul in self control**,
 thy liberty in law!

O beautiful, for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy* more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine**,
'Til all success be nobleness,
and ev'ry gain divine**!

O beautiful, for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years,
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
 God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood**,
from sea to shining sea! --- Katharine Lee Bates, English professor at Wellesley College around 4 July, 1893  (on a trip from the east coast to Colorado Springs)

*While "Jesus" & being "saved from sin" are not clearly spelled out in this poem/song, they underlie these thoughts quire clearly
**The work of the Holy Spirit, who works in Christians to do better things and creates a true brotherhood

Change & the Comfort of the Resurrection

(from the longer poem "That Nature is a Heraclitean (1) Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection.")

...Vastness blurs and time beats level. Enough! the Resurrection
A heart's clarion (2)! Away grief's grasping, joyless days, dejection.
Across my foundering deck (3) shone
A beacon, and eternal beam. Flesh fade, and mortal trash
Fall to the residuary worm; world's wildfire, leave but ash (1):
In a flash, at a trumpet crash (4)
I am all at once what Christ is, since He was what I am, and
this Jack(5), joke poor potsherd, patch(6), matchwood, immortal diamond
Is immortal diamond.(7)
---Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1888

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Manley_Hopkins

(1) Heraclitus [(c) 535-(c) 475 B.C.); Greek philosopher who taught that the basis of all existence was change or "fire." "Strife" changes fire into water, water into earth, and then the process reversed. Hopkins didn't truly believe this philosophy but used it to symbolize the change of the corrupted nature and of the corrupting body in the grave into something immortal & beautiful (Diamonds also come out of the earth & are processed by fire.)
(2) Clarion--a clear, trumpet-like, beckoning call
(3) Foundering deck: shipwreck as a symbol of death. (Again, the "water.")
(4) Trumpet: borrowed directly from II Corinthians 15:25.
(5) "Jack": common fellow; this name was well-used in England.
(6) Patch (archaic): fool, ninny; also, a detached piece, a make-shift fragment, such as the potsherd Job used to scrape his sores (Job 2:8)
(7) "Immortal Diamond": Hopkins, as a Roman Catholic, believed that people carried the "scintilla", the spark of original good, within themselves, even after Sin entered the world. As a Lutheran, I take the immortal diamond, already there alongside the corrupt things, to be the new person that is created in Christ when the person is saved. (The term "immortal diamond" has also been used as a title for Hopkins himself.)

Holy God, We Praise Your Name

[a hymnodic paraphrase of the ancient chant, the Te Deum]

Holy God, we praise Your Name;
Lord of all, we bow before You!
All on earth Your scepter claim*,
All in Heaven above adore You;
Infinite Your vast domain,
Everlasting is Your reign.

1760 Anglican Book of Common Prayer, adapted

Hark! the loud celestial hymn
Angel choirs above are raising,
Cherubim and seraphim,
In unceasing chorus praising;
Fill the heavens with sweet accord:
Holy, holy, holy, Lord.

Lo! the apostolic train
Join the sacred Name to hallow;
Prophets swell the loud refrain,
And the white robed martyrs** follow;
And from morn to set of sun,
Through the Church the song goes on.

You are King of glory, Christ:
Son of God, yet born of Mary;
For us sinners sacrificed,
Bringing us a sanctuary:
First to break the bars of death,
You have opened Heaven to faith.

Therefore do we pray You, Lord:
Help Your servants whom, redeeming
By Your precious blood out-poured,
You have saved from Satan’s scheming.
Give to them eternal rest
In the glory of the blest.

Spare Your people, Lord, we pray,
By a thousand snares surrounded:
Keep us from falling away,
Never let us be confounded.
See, I put my trust in You:
Guide my footsteps in all that I do.

Holy Father, Holy Son, Holy Spirit,
Three we name You;
While in essence only One,
Undivided God we claim You;
And adoring bend the knee,
While we own the mystery.
---Ignaz Franz (German), 1774; adapted Marie Byars, 2008

*more specifically, all of nature & all the saved acknowledge Him willingly now; someday, everyone will be made to acknowledge Him
**"martyrs": those who died as a result of their faith, giving a powerful Christian witness. ("Martyros" in Greek originally meant "witness.")

Vivaldi's Summer

[This continues the series of sonnets Antonio Vivaldi wrote to accompany & explain each of his "Four Seasons" concertos.]

[ALLEGRO NON MOLTO; "brisk but not fast"]
In a harsh season burned by the sun,
Man and flock languish,
And the pine tree is scorched;

[ALLEGRO e tutto sopra il canto; "brisk, lively, all on the A string (modern tuning G string"]
The cuckoo unleashes its voice, and soon

[ALLEGRO NON MOLTO]
We hear the songs of the turtle-dove and the goldfinch.

Sweet Zephyr* blows, but Boreas** suddenly

Opens a dispute with his neighbor;
And the shepherd laments his fate,
For he fears a fierce squall is coming.

[ADAGIO & PRESTO, alternately; "slow tempo" & "rapid tempo"]

His weary limbs are robbed of rest
By his fear of fierce thunder and lightning
And by the furious swarm of flies and blowflies.

[PRESTO]
Alas, his fears are only too real:
The sky fills with thunder and lightning,
And hailstorms hew off the heads of proud cornstalks.

*A sweet, gently warm west wind
**A cold, fierce north wind (in large, flat countries, the collision of these two can brew tornadoes)
[obviously, Vivaldi was not a big fan of summer]

Goin' Home

(adapted from a Black Spiritual)

Goin' home, goin' home;
I'm a-goin' home.
Quiet-like, some still day:
I'm just goin' home.

It's not far, just close by,
Through an open door;
Work's all done, care laid by:
Going to fear no more.

A [former] Slave Cabin near Eufaula, Alabama.  
Photo taken between 1936 & 1938; public domain

Nothing's lost, all gain;
No more fret nor pain.
No more stumbling on the way
No more longing for the day:
Going to roam no more.

Morning star* lights the way;
Restless dream all done.
Shadows gone, break of day:
Real life just begun.

Goin' home, goin' home;
I'm just goin' home:
It's not far, just close by,
Through an open door.
I'm just going home.

* Jesus is called the "Morning Star" in Revelations 22:16 & elsewhere

(used by Anton Dvorak as the basis for the "Largo" in his New World Symphony)

The Starlight Night

Look at the stars! look. look up at the skies!
O look at all the fire-folk sitting in the air!
The bright boroughs*, the circle-citadels* there!
Down in the dim woods the diamond delves**! the elves' eyes!
The grey lawns cold where gold, where quickgold*** lies!...
Ah, well! it is all a purchase, all is a prize.****
---from Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1877

*city images, as if the constellations were fortified cities
**the diamond-like stars dive down to the "land of elves"; (Hopkins nor I really believe in elves--it's just a fanciful & joyful flight of poetic symbolism)
***the light of the heavenly bodies is like "free gold" to anyone who takes the trouble to take it in, but it's gold in motion---it won't be there forever
****the prize comes from the purchase made by Jesus Christ; He died for your sins so all this, too, can be yours, along with the forgiveness and life you have in Him

Vapory Mists

[HEH-vell heh-vah-LEEM]
Vapor of Vapors*:

 [Hah-KOHL HAH-vell.]

 All is (vanishing) vapor
[Mah--yith-ROHK lah-ah-DAHM**]
What profit is it for a man
[B'kohl--eh-mah-LOH sh-yah'-ah-MOHL]
In all his labor which he does
[TACH-ath ha-SHEMM-esh.]
Under the sun? (Ecclesiastes 1: 2a-3)

     Kind of "bleak" taken on its own! But the 12th chapter of Ecclesiastes reminds us we get all of our meaning by remembering our Creator in the days of our youth. And we know that in Jesus, we shall have begun and shall more perfectly live that life in heaven which knows of no vanity or uselessness or futility.

*Often translated as "vanity of vanities"; the Hebrew really says "vapor" because, no matter how much you clutch at vapor, you cannot hold it; in Hebrew, this is the same as the name "Abel"
**"Adam", a man

What a Waste!

Our Solid Waste Problem

     Already in the 1980s, National Geographic alerted readers that so-called bio-degradables don't really break down in landfills. They studied lettuce, for instance, that was nearly 20 years old and still not broken down. And there is much more in the way of thrown-out foodstuffs and yard waste. 

     More recently, William L. Rathje of University of Arizona wrote in his book, Rubbish! the Archeology of Garbage,  "They [landfills] are not vast composters; rather, they are vast mummifiers." He went on to write, "Well-designed and well-managed landfills, in particular, seem to be far more apt to preserve their contents for posterity than to transform them into humus or mulch."

     Solutions? Compost at home. If you can't create a compost heap, try mini-composting: place food waste on the ground right near plants & partially hidden by the foliage or between plants & slightly spaded into the soil. Use a mulching lawn mower. So far, the U.S. has been blessed with enough space not to worry about this, but the time will come.
      Coupling people's desire to become more "green" with episodic economic downturns and concerns about creating quality, well-paying jobs could spur creation of jobs & technology in green fields. Maybe we could invent giant "rakes" to go in and occasionally turn over detritus in existing landfills so that the bio-degradables will compost. We Americans with our so-called "Yankee ingenuity" have been falling down on the job, so to speak, for some decades now. And we Christians have not followed our first pre-sin injunction to take care of this earth.

USDA Blog
Bio Waste & Greenhouse Gases

Spring

Nothing is so beautiful as Spring
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush's eggs look little low heavens*, and thrush**
Through the echoing timber does so rise and wring
The ear, it strides like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing limbs, too, have fair their fling.

The American Robin is a type of "thrush", not at all the species of the English Robin.
Note the egg sketched in there at the back!

What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden---have, get before it cloy***
Innocent mind and Mayday**** in girl and boy,
Most, O Maid's Child*****,
Thy choice and worth the winning.
---Gerard Manley Hopkins, may 1877

*Eggs the color of the sky & reminders of it
**Thrush: the songbird, not the yeast-related infection (ha, ha!!)
***Cloy: to satiate, us. w/something pleasing. Basically, hurry to enjoy this fleeting reminder of Eden before it is spoiled, as the first Eden was by sin
****Mayday: May 1st. Celebrated in Europe with flowers & folk dances. (Happy Mayday! Also, Blessed Ascension. This year, the day commemorating Jesus's bodily Ascension through the clouds, after which we could no longer see Him physically, is also May 1st.)
*****Maid's Child: The Virgin's Son, Jesus. (Roman Catholics devote all of May to Mary.) This suggests that Jesus would choose the "innocent" boys & girls more than anyone else. Actually, no one's innocent & God loves all us rotten sinners just the same.

Birds in Scripture

My soul longed, even yearned
For the courts of Yahweh.
My mind* and my flesh
Cry out to the Living God.
Even the songbird** has found a house,
And the swallow a nest for herself
Where she may lay her young---
Your altars, Oh Yahweh of Armies,
My King and my God! (Psalm 84:2-3)

(Yahweh says)
"I know every bird in the mountains,
And the wild beasts of the forest are Mine." (Ps. 50:11)

In Yahweh have I trusted:
How do you [plural: "y'all"] say to my soul,
"Flee as a bird to your [plural] mountain"?? (Ps. 11:1)

(O, Yahweh),
Keep me as the apple of Your eye:
In the shadow of Your wings hide me. (Ps. 17:8)

"As birds flying around,
Thus will Yahweh of Armies protect Jerusalem.
Defending, he will deliver.
He will 'pass over' and protect." (Isaiah 31:5)

Mighty Yahweh,
You have made yourself known in your Son, Jesus.
Through His crucifixion,
You have established for us a "New Passover"
Where You "pass over" the wrongs we do
And the failures to do right.

As Jesus said, make us to trust
The way the ravens do
"Which niether sow (grain) nor reap
Nor gather (food) into barns"
And are yet fed by our Heavenly Father.
(Matthew 6:25-27 & Luke 12:22-24)

We are worth so much more to You
And, yet, we fill up our lives
With things that are worthless.
Forgive us, love us, and keep working in us
To give us the simple trust of your little birds.

Detail from a tablecloth sold by Vermont Country Store

[original Bible translations & explanatory verses]

*Literally "heart", which ancient Hebrews considered the seat of the intellect.
**"Sparrow" in some translations

Flowers & Grasses in Scripture

"'Man, born of woman,
is of few days, full of turmoil.
As a flower he springs forth
and fades away;
And as a fleeting shadow,
he does not last.'" (Job14:1-2)

"Man--his days are as grass;
As a flower of the field he thus flourishes." (Psalm 103:15)
"They are in the morning
as new grass which springs up.
In the morning it springs and grows;
in the evening it withers and dries out." (Ps. 90:5b-6)

"A voice says, 'Cry out!'
And I say, 'What shall I cry?'
[God replies],
'All flesh is green grass
and all its loveliness as the flower of the field.'
The grass withers, the flower fades
because the Spirit [or 'breath'] of Yahweh blows upon it.
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the Word of God shall stand forever." (Isaiah 40:6-8)
[Messiah says]
"'I am the Crocus* of Sharon,
the Lily of the Valleys.'" (Song of Songs 2:1)
[Because of Messiah Jesus]:
"The wilderness and parched land will be glad;
And the desert-plain will rejoice and blossom;
Like the crocus it will bloom profusely
And rejoice greatly and shout for joy." (Isaiah 35:1-2a)
----original translations

*not really "rose of Sharon"---it's a crocus in Hebrew!!

Vivaldi's Spring

[This is the explanatory sonnet Antonio Vivaldi wrote to preface the "Spring" Concerto, part of the "Four Seasons" Cycle.]

ALLEGRO
Spring has arrived,
And joyfully the birds greet her with glad song,
[FLOWING STREAMS]/LEGATO
While at the Zephyr's* breath
The streams flow forth with a sweet murmur.

Her chosen heralds, thunder and lightning,
Come to envelop the air in a black cloak;
Once they have fallen silent, the little birds
Return anew to their melodious incantation.

LARGO
Then on the pleasant, flower-bedecked meadows,
To the happy murmur of fronds and plants,
The goatherd sleeps next to his trusty dog.

ALLEGRO
To the festive sound of rustic bagpipes
Nymphs and shepherds dance beneath
The beloved sky
At the glorious appearance of spring.
----Antonio Vivaldi

*Zephyr: the warm west wind

April

An altered look about the hills;
A Tyrian* light the village fills;
A wider sunrise in the dawn;
A deeper twilight on the lawn;**
. . .An added strut in chanticleer***;

African Daisies & Snap Dragons

A flower expected everywhere;
An axe singing in the wood;
Fern-odors on untraveled roads,
---All this, and more I cannot tell,
A furtive look you know as well,
And Nicodemus' mystery
Receives its annual reply.****
---Emily Dickinson, Book III [Nature], #49

*Tyrian Purple, a rich crimson or purple dye made in the ancient city of Tyre
**Spring changes the angle of light & the look of light, esp. at sunrise and sunset. The first part of the poem celebrates purplish April dawn & dusk hues.
***A rooster. Originally an older Middle English word coming from Old French, now used in poetic verse
****John 3:4. Nicodemus asks Jesus how a man can be "born again." In John 3:13-16, Jesus makes clear that rebirth and the accompanying eternal life come through Him being "lifted up" (crucified), which, itself, came from the Father's great love in sending Jesus.

The Crucifixion

Technically, this is a prose section, but Luther adds a poetic feeling: "Und es war schon um die sechste Stunde, und es kam eine Finsternis über das ganze Land bis zur neunte Stunde, und die Sonne verlor ihren Schein. . ." Luke 23:44-45a. Or, "It was already the sixth hour, and a darkness came over the entire area until the ninth hour. And the Sun lost its [her] shine. . ."

Confessions*

 

1) Though I'm not at all what I'd like to be, 

 I hope you'll understand. . .  

My thoughts and deeds aren't "good as gold":  

They're more like worthless sand. 

 2) So far as east is from the west,  

So far my sin's removed.**  

Embraced by Jesus's perfect grace, 

I know I'm always loved.  

3) My love for God is really true, 

My faith in Him sincere:

Now I reach to others, too,  

4) To show I really care.  

So after a trying day of work,  

When stress just runs away, 

I hope you realize I know inside 

It's still a lovely day! 

 

---Marie Byars, 1986; Ft. Stewart, GA 

 

 *"Confessions" of both sin & faith **Psalm 103:12

sketch accompanying original version in my journal

The "Nature" of Love

[Agapge]* Love is patient and is kind;
Love does not envy;
Love does not boast and is not vain;
It down not behave rudely nor seek its own way;
It is not provoked and does not think evil;
It does not rejoice in wrong-doing but rejoices in the truth.

[Love] bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails. . .
And now these three things remain:
Faith, Hope, and Love;
But the greatest of these is Love.
St. Paul, I Corinthians 13: 3-8; 13

* "Agape" is a special type of undeserved Love. God shows it perfectly; we cannot, which is why we are all sinners.
"Happy Valentine's Day!!"

Vivaldi's Winter

Antonio Vivaldi prefaced each of the "Four Seasons" Concertos with a sonnet. Here's "Winter":

ALLEGRO MOLTO 

To shiver, frozen, amid icy snow

in the bitter blast of a horrible wind; 

to run constantly stamping one's feet; 

and to feel one's teeth chatter

 on account of the excessive cold; 

LARGO 

To spend restful, happy days at the fireside 

while the rain outside drenches a good 100; 

ALLEGRO 

to walk on the ice, and with slow steps

to move about cautiously for fear of falling; 

to go fast, to slip and fall down; ["falling to the ground"] 

to go on the ice again and run fast 

until the ice cracks and opens up;

LENTO ["Sirocco Wind"]

to hear coming out of the iron gates 

ALLEGRO MOLTO 

Sirocco, Boreas and all the winds at war:

that's winter, but of a kind to gladden one's heart. 

---Antonio Vivaldi, 1725

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

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)

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

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

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

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]

4th of July Canyon, New Mexico

The Dirty Floor

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

    Sometimes 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)