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 Gerard Manley Hopkins moon night summer change nature religion Catholic poetry literature poetry

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

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 Emily Dickinson God eternity hope nature religion poetry literature spring season flowers

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

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[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

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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)