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