tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37574932024-03-07T11:16:09.702-06:00Noises From the MachineNoises From the Machineluaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.comBlogger447125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-75494957496207337882023-10-11T08:38:00.006-05:002023-10-11T08:38:35.928-05:00Old English Poetry: A Modest Bibliography<p>For those who would love to explore Old English poetry beyond <i>Beowulf</i> but don't know where to look, here are some suggestions:</p><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Physical Books:</span></h3><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><i style="font-style: italic;">The Complete Old English Poems</i>, by Craig Williamson, March 3, 2017 - If you've just GOT to catch 'em all!</span></li><li><i>Old English Poetry: An Anthology</i>, by R. M. Liuzza, March 26, 2014 - A good, poetic translation of the most important Old English texts.</li><li><i>Anglo-Saxon Poetry</i>, by S. A. J. Bradley, February 15, 1995 - A well-regarded prose translation of the major Old English texts, by codex.</li><li><i>The Word Exchange: Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation</i>, by Greg Delanty (Editor), Michael Matto (Editor), Seamus Heaney (Foreword), April 9, 2012 - Modern poets take on ancient poems</li><li><i>An Anthology of Old English Poetry</i>, by Charles William Kennedy, Dec 31, 1960 - much beloved by the previous generation of English students; out of print, but available used</li></ul></span><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Online Sources:</span></h3><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">The entire corpus of Anglo-Saxon poetry is online in the original language at <a href="https://sacred-texts.com/neu/ascp/index.htm">https://sacred-texts.com/neu/ascp/index.htm</a>.</span></li><li>Translations of nearly 80% of the corpus can be found at <a class="x1fey0fg xmper1u x1edh9d7" href="https://oldenglishpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">https://oldenglishpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/</span></a>.</li><li><i>The Exeter Book Anthology, Israel Gollancz</i>, (Poems 1-8, parallel Anglo-Saxon / Modern English): <a class="x1fey0fg xmper1u x1edh9d7" href="https://archive.org/details/publicationsorig104earluoft/page/n5/mode/2up"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">https://archive.org/details/publicationsorig104earluoft/page/n5/mode/2up</span></a></li><li><i>The Old English Reader</i> is online in the original with side-by-side textual notes and glossary at <a class="x1fey0fg xmper1u x1edh9d7" href="www.oereader.ca"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">www.oereader.ca</span></a></li></ul>luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-30301343573462716122023-10-06T06:39:00.000-05:002023-10-06T06:39:01.802-05:00Nearly There<p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I know your breathing,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The sweep of your back,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The proper way to tuck you in,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">So why do the six inches</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Of bed between us</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Feel like six thousand miles?</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">You’ve embraced my body and tasted my tears</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">In the holy darkness;</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">You’ve seen my deep places,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">So why do I feel unseen tonight,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Alone right next to</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">My closest companion?</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Tomorrow there will be</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Strong coffee and gentle kisses,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Sunrise together on the porch,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">But for tonight </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">We’re just two ships</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Trying not to wreck in the fog.</span></p>luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-38666062257863032092023-10-06T06:35:00.005-05:002024-03-07T11:15:38.580-06:00After Dover Beach<p>After Dover Beach</p><div style="text-align: left;"><div>Here’s the truth:</div><div>The sea of faith was never full.</div><div>Human hearts always wander,</div><div>Always grieve, </div><div>Always fear.</div><div>That’s what Sophocles heard in the Aegean</div><div>And Arnold heard in the Atlantic,</div><div>And I hear tonight</div><div>In these Kansas River-ripples.</div><div><br /></div><div>But down by the riverside,</div><div>Under the watchful witness</div><div>Of old Menninger’s clocktower,</div><div>All my senses testify of grace</div><div>Poured forth in ways</div><div>As familiar as they are new:</div><div>Jumping fish,</div><div>Waxing moon,</div><div>Frog-and-cicada chorus,</div><div>Fireflies dancing through the dark.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is what Arnold missed:</div><div>Though faith’s sea</div><div>Be a mere mudpuddle,</div><div>Surrounded by the clashes </div><div>Of ignorant armies,</div><div>Grace is a vast ocean, </div><div>Abounding more each moment,</div><div>Dragging us under its riptides,</div><div>Plunging us into light so bright</div><div>It drowns the looming dark,</div><div>Fulfilling promises too good</div><div>To be untrue.</div></div>luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-29717321980693070572023-03-28T08:30:00.004-05:002023-03-28T08:30:49.524-05:00Gleanings From Computer Power and Human Reason<p> I'm working through Joseph Weizenbaum's classic work, <i>Computer Power and Human Reason</i>. Some parts of it are a bit dry, but others are quite interesting and relevant to computer science today. </p><p>I enjoyed how clearly Weizenbaum explains the universal Turing machine, as well as his low-level account of how computers store and process data. These are essential building blocks in understanding how computers work and why they are so powerful, and Weizenbaum handles them well.</p><p>One of the most surprising elements of the book is how relevant Weizenbaum's concerns about artificial intelligence remain today. He is skeptical of the notion that humans are mere input/output devices, and that sufficiently advanced machine intelligence could therefore become equivalent to humans. As he observes, we may be universal Turing machines, but we are also much more than that. </p><p>Here are some quotes that stood out to me.</p><p>On programs as expressions of problem-solving: </p><blockquote><p>A computer is a merciless critic. Therefore the assertion that one understands a thing sufficiently well to be able to program it is, first of all, an assertion that one understands it in very particular terms. In any case, it can be no more than a boast that may well be falsified by experience.</p><p>The other side of the coin is the belief that one cannot program anything unless one thoroughly understands it. This misses the truth that programming is, again like any form of writing, more often than not experimental. One programs, just as one writes, not because one understands, but in order to come to understand. Programming is an act of design. To write a program is to legislate the laws for a world one first has to create in imagination. </p><p>Only very rarely does any designer, be he a an architect, a novelist, or whatever, have so coherent a picture of the world emergent in his imagination that he can compose its laws without criticism from that world itself. That is precisely what the computer may provide (108-109).</p><p></p></blockquote><blockquote><p>Computers are maddeningly efficient at stumbling over purely technical, i.e., linguistic, programming errors, but stumbling in a way that disguises the real locus of the trouble, e.g., just which parenthesis was misplaced...</p></blockquote><blockquote><p>... There is therefore a persistent cry for natural-language, e.g., English, programming systems. Programmers who hold to this belief have probably never tackled a truly difficult problem, and have therefore never felt the need for really deep criticism from the computer (109).</p></blockquote><p>On computer programs as abstract games:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>The computer is, of course, a physically embodied machine and, as such, cannot violate natural law. But it is not completely characterized by only its manifest interaction with the real world.</p><p>Electrons flow through it, its tapes move, and its lights blink, all in strict obedience to physical law, to be sure and the courses of its internal rivers of electrons are determined by openings and closings of gates, that is, by physical events. But the game the computer plays out is regulated by systems of ideas whose range is bounded only by the limitations of the human imagination. The physically determined bounds on the electronic and mechanical events internal to the computer do not matter for that game--any more than it matters how tightly a chess player grips his bishop or how rapidly he moves it over the board.</p><p>A computer running under control of a stored program is thus detached from the real world in the same way that every abstract game is. (112)</p></blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote><p>The computer programmer, however, is a creator of universes for which he alone is the lawgiver. So, of course, is the designer of any game. But universes of virtually unlimited complexity can be created in the form of computer programs. Moreover, and this is a crucial point, systems so formulated and elaborated act out their programmed scripts. They compliantly obey their laws and vividly exhibit their obedient behavior. No playwright, no stage director, no emperor, however powerful, has ever exercised such absolute authority to arrange a stage or a field of battle and to command such unswervingly dutiful actors or troops.</p><p>One would have to be astonished if Lord Acton's observation that power corrupts were not to apply in an environment in which omnipotence is so easily achievable. It does apply. And the corruption evoked by the computer programmer's omnipotence manifests itself in a form that is instructive in a domain far larger that the immediate environment of the computer (115).</p></blockquote><p> On the Compulsive Programmer vs. the Professional Programmer:</p><blockquote><div>The compulsive programmer is convinced that life is nothing but a program running on an enormous computer, and that therefore every aspect of life can ultimately be explained in programming terms. Many scientists (again there are notable exceptions) also believe that every aspect of life and nature can finally be explained in exclusively scientific terms. Indeed, as Polany correctly points out, the stability of scientific beliefs is defended by the same devices that protect magical belief systems: </div></blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><div>Any contradiction between a particular scientific notion and the facts of experience will be explained by other scientific notions; there is a ready reserve of possible scientific hypotheses available to explain any conceivable event. . .. within science itself, the stability of theories against experience is maintained by epicyclical reserves which suppress alternative conceptions in the germ.</div></blockquote><div>The professional regards programming as a means toward an end, not as an end in itself. His satisfaction comes from having solved a substantive problem, not from having bent a computer to his will. </div></blockquote><blockquote><p>[The compulsive programmer's] main interest is, in any case, not in small programs, but in very large, very ambitious systems of programs. Usually the systems he undertakes to build, and on which he works feverishly for perhaps a month or two or three, have very grandiose but extremely imprecisely stated goals. Some examples of these ambitions are: new computer languages to facilitate man-machine communication; a general system that can be taught to play any board game; a system to make it easier for computer experts to write super-systems (this last is a favorite). It is characteristic of many such projects that the programmer can long continue in the conviction that they demand knowledge about nothing but computers, programming, etc. And that knowledge he, of course, commands in abundance (117).</p></blockquote><blockquote><p>Programming systems can, of course, be built without plan and without knowledge, let alone understanding, of the deep structural issues involved, just as houses, cities, systems of dams, and national economic policies can be similarly hacked together. As a System so constructed begins to get large, however, it also becomes increasingly unstable. When one of its subfunctions fails in an unanticipated way, it may be patched until the manifest trouble disappears. But since there is no general theory of the whole system, the system itself can be only a more or less chaotic aggregate of subsystems whose influence on one another's behavior is discoverable only piecemeal and by experiment. The hacker spends part of his time at the console piling new subsystems onto the structure he has already built -- he calls them "new features" -- and the rest of his time in attempts to account for the way in which substructures already in place misbehave. That is what he and the computer converse about.</p><p>The psychological situation the compulsive programmer finds himself in while so engaged is strongly determined by two apparently opposing facts: first, he knows that he can make the computer do anything he wants it to do; and second, the computer constantly displays undeniable evidence of his failures to him. It reproaches him. There is no escaping this bind. The engineer can resign himself to the truth that there are some things he doesn't know. But the programmer moves in a world entirely of his own making. The computer challenges his power, not his knowledge.</p><p>Indeed, the compulsive programmer's excitement rises to its highest, most feverish pitch when he is on the trail of a most recalcitrant error, when everything ought to work but the computer nevertheless reproaches him by misbehaving in a number of mysterious, apparently unrelated ways. It is then that the system the programmer has himself created gives every evidence of having taken on a life of its own and, certainly, of having slipped from his control. This too is the point at which the idea that the computer can be "made to do anything" becomes most relevant and most soundly based in reality (119).</p></blockquote><blockquote><p>But the compulsive programmer's pride and elation are very brief. His success consists of his having shown the computer who its master is. And having demonstrated that he can make it do this much, he immediately sets out to make it do even more. Thus the entire cycle begins again. He begins to "improve" his system, say, by making it run faster, or by adding "new features" to it, or by improving the ease with which data can be entered into it and gotten out of it. The act of modifying the then-existing program invariably causes some of its substructures to collapse; they constitute, after all, an amorphous collection of processes whose interactions with one another are virtually fortuitous. His apparently devoted efforts to improve and promote his own creation are really an assault on it, an assault whose only consequence can be to renew his struggle with the computer (120). </p></blockquote>luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-9511590801695460082023-03-13T07:08:00.000-05:002023-03-13T07:08:18.836-05:00Salvage<p> After the shatter,<br />Shards scattered<br />In chaos across the floor,<br />Lodging in cracks,<br />Sliding under furniture,<br />Generally making recovery<br />Unthinkable.</p><p>I'd just sweep up,<br />Start over,<br />Make it less fragile<br />Next time around.</p><p>But he did not.</p><p>He still saw beauty<br />In each crash-blown sliver<br />And wanted them back,<br />No matter the cost.</p><p>So he stooped down,<br />Lower than low,<br />Reached for each one,<br />Braved cuts and scrapes,<br />Bruises and baffling rejection,<br />To somehow recover<br />His broken treasure.</p>luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-36715090401468659212023-02-28T08:02:00.002-06:002023-02-28T08:02:34.097-06:00Skysong<h2 style="text-align: left;"> Skysong</h2><div>28 February 2023</div><div><br /></div><div>He awakens me, for the trillionth time, </div><div>With a lingering kiss,</div><div>And, for the trillionth time, I blush, </div><div>Warmth starting in the utter east,</div><div>Then radiating up and out.</div><div><br /></div><div>When he kisses me goodnight,</div><div>With one last blush-inducing caress,</div><div>I grow cold and lonesome,</div><div>Especially in winter</div><div>When sharp stars prick the night,</div><div>Shrill reminders of what I no longer have.</div><div><br /></div><div>Summers are better:</div><div>He's not gone so long,</div><div>And I stow some of his warmth away</div><div>Packed in the humidity of the night,</div><div>And even the stars get soft around the edges,</div><div>Their voices deep and mellow</div><div>Under layers of cricket-and-frog-song.</div><div><br /></div><div>But every single morning, oh! </div><div>His lips are hungry, and so am I,</div><div>And he flames up and fills me, </div><div>Warming me from east to west,</div><div>Certain as the dawn, of course.</div><div>And the wonder is not</div><div>That this is the trillionth time</div><div>Or even that he's never missed a day,</div><div><br /></div><div>But that he is </div><div>right here,</div><div>right now,</div><div>with me.</div>luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-27203146120987782062023-02-14T08:12:00.007-06:002023-02-14T08:29:04.383-06:00A Trip to the Cape<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 26pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">A Trip to the Cape</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-5f302ad0-7fff-cfeb-8092-502a815cce6b"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For Magen, on the occasion of our 19th Valentine’s Day together, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-style: italic; white-space: pre-wrap;">in memory of our June 2018 trip to Massachusetts.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie7634n2Rnw_pp4HIsTXH0aftgALB-wliuu40KZRSMFse0oT1tnmsbPTpQ16jdZ52ClXTEOAQL5CM83gCZxHmCdlz7t7eL0ZLuRjLYJ8Pmcn2jtuNXsGE6pPFKk_8ldCdw9eN34nWdbA_vTT1r9UnHduZ7yZMaQPFbVSJqhZKS6lEZ7W7bFuI/s3024/IMG_6543_hq.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="2268" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie7634n2Rnw_pp4HIsTXH0aftgALB-wliuu40KZRSMFse0oT1tnmsbPTpQ16jdZ52ClXTEOAQL5CM83gCZxHmCdlz7t7eL0ZLuRjLYJ8Pmcn2jtuNXsGE6pPFKk_8ldCdw9eN34nWdbA_vTT1r9UnHduZ7yZMaQPFbVSJqhZKS6lEZ7W7bFuI/w300-h400/IMG_6543_hq.JPG" width="300" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do you remember that day on the Cape,
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our children entrusted to young Springers
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hiking up a mountain somewhere in Colorado?
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We drove up the Atlantic coast,
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Past endless beaches and lovely old lighthouses,
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not alone, as I had promised,
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">But at the tender traveling mercies
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of our friend Chuck, jokester and retired undertaker,</span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And his remarkably patient wife, Phyllis.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We loved them, of course,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And were grateful for their generous hospitality.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But you had envisioned a New England tour,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Romantic, lovely, free of stresses,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At a leisurely pace through the northeast</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In fall when the foliage flamed,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Retiring together to a B&B bed piled with quilts</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the end of the day, hearts and eyes</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sated with goodness, beauty, and sweet company.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had envisioned the same sort of thing,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But on a budget.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So I allowed my cheapness to defeat</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Your best ideas, your earnest desires,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And that is why we were staying o</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">n twin beds</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In Chuck and Phyllis’s stifling attic guestroom</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And riding in the back of their Camry</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Along every blessed inch of Cape Cod.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(To say nothing of my storm-dissolved plan</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For a romantic Rhode Island getaway</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That became a night of pure discomfort,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trying to sleep on an airport bench in Baltimore.)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is true that we ate at that cute farm-to table place,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And learned many edifying facts about The Pilgrims,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And some fascinating ones about the undertaking business,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And got out at probably every lighthouse there is on Cape Cod,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And shared the exciting horror of Chuck’s accident in P-Town,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">His slow, baffled descent from the tipping restaurant bench,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">His head hitting the ground with a sick thud,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And the way the queer servers attended to him so kindly</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That he was forced to reassess his opinions of them.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But none of that was very romantic,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And I would have been sorry I ever dragged you along</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On this ludicrous, tantalizing mockery of your dream vacation</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If it hadn’t been for the reassuring warmth of your hand in mine</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And your heartmelting smile in the June sunshine</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And the way those American flag earrings brought out the blue in your eyes</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And how you fit just right in the crook of my arm</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even at 2 am on a metal bench in the Baltimore airport</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When there was no hope of sleep anytime soon.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-26768289335461530062023-02-02T03:56:00.000-06:002023-02-02T03:56:43.878-06:00Worth<p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I find that I flee</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">From silence </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">And solitude</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">And even sleep,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Filling their sacred void</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">With sound and fury,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Talking heads and tiktokers,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Resonant, relentless voices </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Selling wares </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Without worth.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I flee because </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I feel a flame</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Flickering in the deep dark,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">And I fear it will find me,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Pass over me,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Utterly consume me,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Leaving behind only hints</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Of the self I thought I was:</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Ashes and dust, </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Without worth.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I flee because</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I don’t yet believe</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The truth I profess:</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">A flame is there, yes,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">And it consumes, yes,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">But it’s there to unbury </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">A hidden treasure,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">To burn away my dross,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">And finally reveal </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">All of my worth.</span></p>luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-69837482363739479912022-10-17T03:36:00.002-05:002022-10-17T03:39:31.983-05:00Forty-One<p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Forty-one looks like</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Autumn flames consuming the maples,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The predawn goodmorning </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Of a beautiful woman who loves me,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">A circle of smiling friends </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Discussing sin and redemption,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">A long afternoon nap,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Cuddles on the couch while the Chiefs</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Fight their way to last-minute heartbreak,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Shrimp tacos and chocolate chip cookies,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Perfect gifts wrapped by a seven-year-old,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">And bedtime blessings before an early night.</span></p>luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-11493685745003340662022-10-17T03:19:00.001-05:002022-10-17T03:19:08.569-05:00Faces<p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I cannot look away, these days,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">From the face of the moon</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Or the face of a newborn baby</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Without gazing for a while,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Staring at fresh new glories</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Barely veiling ancient ones.</span></p>luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-15410154111002231572022-04-02T13:33:00.000-05:002022-04-02T13:33:26.388-05:00The Ruin: A Fresh Translation<div><i>I've always loved "The Ruin," a damaged Anglo-Saxon poem from the Exeter Book. I had occasion to revisit it in April 2021, and I decided to translate it again, for my own pleasure and to help me think through some writing I was doing for </i><a href="https://store.rabbitroom.com/products/the-lost-tales-of-sir-galahad-ships-spring-2022?variant=39416318328919" target="_blank">The Lost Tales of Sir Galahad</a><i>. I share it here in hopes that it may amuse and/or edify you.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>You can see the original Anglo-Saxon and a different translation of it at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ruin#The_poem_and_a_version_in_modern_English" target="_blank">this wikipedia page</a>.</i></div><div><br /></div>Jewel-like is this wallstone, Fate-broken.<br />The castle burst; its giant-work crumbles.<br />Roofs have fallen, towers lie in ruin.<br />The frostgate is riven, rime on lime,<br />The storm-refuge in shards, shorn to disaster,<br />Eaten from beneath by age. Earth’s grip holds<br />The castle’s mighty makers, withered and gone.<br />Soil's hard grasp will hold them until a hundred generations<br />Of mankind have passed. Oft this wall endured,<br />Lichen-grey and red of hue, in one kingdom after another;<br />It held up under storms: Steep, lofty, lost.<br />It crumbles still, the ...s heaped up<br />Abide...<br />Grimly ground ...<br />... shone, they ...<br />... clever work, ancient ...<br />... a ring of dried mud ...<br />mind ... swift, crafty,<br />Determined in rings, bound the high roof<br />A wire-helmed wall, ingeniously joined.<br />Bright were the castle-halls, many bath-houses,<br />High treasure-horns, great troop-sounds,<br />Many meadhalls, full of men's joy,<br />Until that was turned severely by Fate.<br />The battle-felled ranged wide, the pestilence-days came.<br />Death carried off rough and ready swordsmen;<br />Their battlegrounds became abandoned wastes.<br />The castle crumbled; its repairers themselves crumpled to the ground.<br />Thus, these houses have collapsed,<br />And the red arch is sundered from the tiles,<br />The pillared-vault's roof. It has all collapsed,<br />Broken to bits, where many a warrior,<br />Glad-minded and gold-bright, gleamingly adorned,<br />Proud and wine-brave, shone in battle-array.<br />He looked at loot, at silver, at stunning gems,<br />At wealth, at possessions, at goblet-stones,<br />At the bright fortress of a broad kingdom.<br />The stonecastle stood, streams brought heat,<br />A wide spring. A wall surrounded it all,<br />Its bright bosom, where the baths were,<br />Hot in its heart. That was convenient.<br />They let it out...<br />Over grey stone the hot streams <br />Un- ...<br />... that ring-pool hot...<br />... where the baths were ...<br />Then is ... <br />...-re; That is a kingly thing<br />How the ... castle ...luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-36053656766487842912022-04-02T04:00:00.001-05:002022-04-02T08:35:11.763-05:00Walking in Will<p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 28px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3px;"><span style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Deliver me, Lord Christ,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Captain of my affections and my days,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">From the crushing weight of should,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The overwhelming vastness of could,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The urgent tyranny of must,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">And the aimless vacillation of might.</span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Let me walk instead in the steadfast way of will:</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">My will, sweetly conformed to yours,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Seeking to fulfill the good plans</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">You crafted for me from eternity past,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Intending me to walk in them.</span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">O Lord, I would walk in them.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I might, must, could, should walk in them,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">And by your gracious hand</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">And the quickening </span><span class="s3" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleItalicBody; font-style: italic;">dynamis </span><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"> </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Of your holy wind </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">That breathes gusts of your presence </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Into my inner man,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">I will walk in them.</span></p>luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-88124355878770595742021-12-31T10:50:00.001-06:002021-12-31T10:50:28.341-06:00Songbird<p>Winter is somber beneath grey skies,<br />Autumn mouldering in scattered leafpiles,<br />Summer's ember a mere memory,<br />Spring a songbird long flown south.</p><p>Sheol opens his mouth and closes his eyes,<br />So the dead earth comes as no surprise<br />Here in December's darkling days,<br />When life's dim flame is guttering out.</p><p>The year's last sharp moonsliver<br />Is smothered by cloudwisps<br />Here in the last, darkest hour <br />Before the final dawn.</p><p>Wind whips anything it can,<br />Driving the enduring chill<br />Down through skin, down through bone,<br />Down, down, down to the depths.</p><p>It is hard to remember the songbird's breath<br />Here in a land of cold, dark death,<br />But her return does not depend<br />Upon our belief or remembrances.</p><p>Make no mistake: She will return.<br />As surely as the dancing spheres<br />Bring dawn and winter's end,<br />We will hear birdsong again.</p>luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-24702082836039380102021-12-14T06:55:00.000-06:002021-12-14T06:55:00.202-06:00A Prayer Before Writing<p>Our Father, architect of all that is,<br />You formed gas giants and ribosomes,<br />Alligators and daffodils,<br />Optic nerves and salt crystals,<br />All by the word of Your mouth.</p><p>When You had finished,<br />You looked on Your work with joy<br />And called it good.</p><p>O Lord, we would follow your example.<br />Like children building sand castles<br />In the shadow of the Taj Mahal,<br />We see your wondrous works<br />And long to make beautiful things,<br />To speak worlds of our own making<br />Into marvelous existence.</p><p>And so we humbly ask<br />That Your Spirit would inhabit our efforts,<br />That You would empower Your people,<br />Made in Your image,<br />To write new songs and scenes,<br />To weave words into marvelous tapestries,<br />To shine beacons into the world's dark places,<br />To seek out the truest paths,<br />To tell good stories<br />That echo back the best story:<br />Your story of love and loss and redemption.</p><p>Bless and direct our efforts now, O gracious Father,<br />So that when we look back on them,<br />We can call them very good.</p>luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-11661385072806024152021-08-24T08:00:00.004-05:002021-08-24T08:00:50.606-05:00Afterdeath<p>I wait in the parking lot<br />Until I can finish sobbing along<br />To songs about the Resurrection,<br />Then walk through the parking lot,<br />Admiring the waning blue moon<br />As she wanes on the western horizon --<br />We will not see another such for years --<br />And go inside to numb my fresh grief<br />Among orderly lines of code.</p><p>(My friend, Father Thomas McKenzie, <a href="https://religionnews.com/2021/08/23/thomas-mckenzie-nashville-anglican-pastor-and-daughter-killed-in-car-crash/" target="_blank">died yesterday in a car crash</a> on I-40 west of Nashville. I hope to meet him again when the earth is remade by its glorious Redeemer.)</p>luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-539422832312330562021-01-18T19:16:00.001-06:002021-01-18T19:39:23.963-06:00Incomprehensible<p> In a jagged-edged caps-lock world <br />Where angry strangers rage-tweet "F*@% YOUR FEELINGS"<br />You wept with the heartbroken.</p><p>In a world of flaming deplorables and molten snowflakes<br />Where hate spews like sulfurous geysers,<br />You embraced the untouchable.</p><p>In a fake-news alternate-fact world<br />Where expedience trumps evidence,<br />You told the truth no matter the cost.</p><p>No wonder that the Light shines in the darkness<br />And the darkness does not comprehend it.</p>luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-32006542333283365412021-01-12T22:14:00.004-06:002021-01-12T22:14:21.835-06:00Lunar Lover<p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">Moonlike, your moods</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">Wax and wane</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">Night by night,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">Each phase lovelier</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">Than the last,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">Mysterious, heart-catching,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">Sometimes cloud-shrouded,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">Always stareworthy,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">Never boring or old,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">Fascinating me even when</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">Cloaked in shadow.</span></p>luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-72197451844722605382021-01-05T21:34:00.003-06:002021-01-05T21:34:53.229-06:00Loving My Enemies<p></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Did you love the scribes,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">The Pharisees, the Sadducees</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Who spilled your blood </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">By Pilate’s well-washed hands</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">At the dump on the edge of town?</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Did you pray for them</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Before raining seven woes on them,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">After, </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Or neither?</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Were they the ones you wept over,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Longing to cover them</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">With strong protecting wings?</span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.3px;"><span class="s2"></span><br /></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">You were no hypocrite, so I think</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">You must have prayed </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">and wept for them</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">In those few precious moments </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">In the middle of the night </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">When no one clamored</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">For your attention </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Your miracles</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Your teaching</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">And you could be alone</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">With your beloved father.</span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.3px;"><span class="s2"></span><br /></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">If you could do that</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">For men who hated </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">everything about you,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Who mocked and scorned you,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Crowned you with thorns,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Spat on you and ripped</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Your back into a slurry</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Of blood and torn flesh,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">And hung you naked to suffocate</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">In a public, shameful place,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Despised, rejected,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Acquainted with grief —</span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.3px;"><span class="s2"></span><br /></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">If you could love them,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Then surely I can love</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">These fearful hand-wringing</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Reactionary nutjobs </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Who invent conspiracies </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">About stolen elections,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Who deny our responsibility </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">To steward the world you gave us,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Who would rather suppress dissent</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Than see justice flow down like waters,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Who think they’re victims </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Of a new Holocaust</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Because they tweeted something offensive </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">And got dragged for it.</span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.3px;"><span class="s2"></span><br /></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">O Lord Christ,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">I cannot love such a love</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Unless it is your love in me.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Remove my disdain,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">My sarcastic judgments </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">On these brethren,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Your adopted sons</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">And my fellow servants.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Cast out my demonic pride</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">And replace it with your grace.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Help me to see their pain and fear</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">And to weep with their weeping.</span></p><p class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 20.3px;"><span class="s2"></span><br /></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Let my speech be unerringly kind,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Seasoned with salt,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">And rare enough</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">To be significant.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">May I be quick to hear,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Slow to speak,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Slow to anger,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">And may everything I do say</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Be born of Your Spirit in me.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2"><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Love them through me</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">With your divine love, O Lord,</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">For you know my own</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s2">Is cold and insufficient.</span></p>luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-24397538796256247242020-12-22T06:16:00.001-06:002020-12-22T06:16:07.666-06:00The Wild Hunt<div style="text-align: left;">I believe in the Wild Hunt<br />On this longest night of the year<br />When wolves howl at a never-setting moon<br />And it seems Sun has succumbed<br />To a long diminution<br />And the enduring chill pierces<br />To my very joints and marrow.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />Odin rides forth with his hell-hounds,<br />And woe betide the mortal in their path!<br />They thirst for innocent souls,<br />Through endless night they hunt,<br />Transforming moon to blood,<br />Blacking out the very stars<br />By their grim and hungry passing.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And yet on this midwinter's night<br />I believe not in Odin's Wild Hunt,<br />But that of a more ancient god,<br />One who seeks souls with a fiercer hunger,<br />Who set out on an impossible raid, risking all<br />To plunder the hoard of Death itself<br />And win forth into the dawn of an undefeated Sun.</div>luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-69643678257086852022020-06-26T07:40:00.001-05:002020-06-26T07:40:34.792-05:00Starlight from the Night-Cloud<i>Note: This is a poem I curated by feeding the first two lines of T. S. Eliot's "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" into the GPT-2 text generator at <a href="https://talktotransformer.com/">https://talktotransformer.com/</a>, selecting the best output, and then feeding more lines in for auto-completion. Not bad for a robot!</i><br />
<br />
Starlight from the Night-Cloud<br />
A. I. Eliot<br />
<br />
The red-bed sparrows flutter on the gray windowpanes<br />
Just over the churchyard wall<br />
The twinkling stars flow across the cold dusk<br />
amidst the rose-colored smile of the autumn night<br />
Light and dark, hope and despair,<br />
grace and frolicking triumph and affliction,<br />
death and life all with their cherubic faces<br />
spun into another world -- into another world,<br />
the leaves are falling, and the birds have fled to their holes<br />
and the deep shadows from the chalets lie upon the grass<br />
and the starlight shines from the clear night-cloud;<br />
the sound of the love-songs from the hills echoes to and fro<br />
and the high hopes of many voices who have yet to be heard;<br />
There is a tumult of people and a multiplicity of voices;<br />
And they are dancing.luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-59921133870914778712020-04-25T06:51:00.004-05:002020-04-25T06:51:45.915-05:00Meet me<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
Meet me<br />
in the quiet of the morning<br />
in the red teakettle<br />
in the candle lit against darkness<br />
in the water and the Word<br />
in the bread and the cupluaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-54394403378346688552020-04-25T06:50:00.001-05:002020-04-25T06:59:58.934-05:00On Being Half Dead<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2HBIh-yMhXv0nknNJLh31HEL9JTXTvE2oGol9lD-awE9iB3MrrDoEd71IKiatuxyKOA7W_thUUPWus41PtIlpRFgr67FuzFtP4tLgVsIkeSndw3Zl0_IBLQp5tc_gpNkXiICZyw/s1600/dying.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="392" data-original-width="987" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2HBIh-yMhXv0nknNJLh31HEL9JTXTvE2oGol9lD-awE9iB3MrrDoEd71IKiatuxyKOA7W_thUUPWus41PtIlpRFgr67FuzFtP4tLgVsIkeSndw3Zl0_IBLQp5tc_gpNkXiICZyw/s400/dying.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
This morning I awoke at 4:45 with a keen sense of my own mortality. As I lay in bed listening to the dripping of the April rain and the occasional call of an overzealous early bird, a voice told me, "You're 38 and a half years old."<br />
<br />
"Mmm," I mumbled, and rolled over to get some more sleep.<br />
<br />
"A lot of people don't live till 80."<br />
<br />
I rearranged my pillow.<br />
<br />
"And you're obese. The BMI chart says so."<br />
<br />
"Sure," I responded, sitting up and scowling a fat scowl. "People used to die before 80 quite a bit. But as <a href="https://kenyonreview.org/programs/resources-for-teachers/flannery-oconnor/" target="_blank">Mrs. Lucy Nell Crater said</a>, 'They wasn't as advanced as we are.' We're living longer these days.<br />
<br />
"Look at this COVID-19 thing," I continued. "We've basically crippled our whole national economy in order to extend the lives of 50,000 Boomers long enough to vote for Trump again this November." I knew this was unfair and likely inaccurate, but being tired makes me cranky and cynical. I rubbed my eyes, keenly aware that in doing so I was also touching my face.<br />
<br />
"We love keeping people alive longer than nature intended, and we're getting better at it all the time. But even if we weren't, and even if I'm halfway to death, 77 would be a great age to die at. It's the product of two primes. Now will you please shut your stupid imaginary mouth so I can get some more sleep?"<br />
<br />
"Your Uncle Jim died real young," the voice continued. "What was he? 40? 45?"<br />
<br />
I gathered the blanket around me and squeezed my eyes shut.<br />
<br />
"You know the one! Worked for the Kansas Department of Wildlife or something?"<br />
<br />
I began humming "Samson" by Regina Spektor to shut the voice out.<br />
<br />
"You remember! Taught your mom to play poker when she was a little girl by holding her on his lap during games? Bald as a boulder? Loved beer and watermelon? Favorite ice cream was Rocky Road? And say, don't you love poker and beer and watermelon and Rocky Road? And you started balding at 22."<br />
<br />
"Look, you... whatever you are. I'm fine with dying. Lived a good life. Ready to meet my Maker and all that. So whatever you're trying to do, it's not working." I rolled over and rearranged the blankets again. Next to me, Magen stirred. Shoot. Maybe I should get up so at least one of us could get some more sleep.<br />
<br />
"'A good life,'" the voice rejoined. "Let's talk about that. What have you accomplished, really?"<br />
<br />
I sighed and gave in. "My wife and I survived a couple of really hard years of marriage, and we are closer now after 15 years than we've ever been. We have four beautiful kids who don't behave like monsters. I have a cookie cutter house in the suburbs and a yard full of dandelion skeletons and two used vehicles and two brand new pairs of nice running shoes. I make six figures at a stimulating, enjoyable, and low-stress job. My relationship with God has seldom been stronger, and I'm learning to play the piano and teaching my four-year-old to read."<br />
<br />
"Six figures, huh? Nice. But as <a href="https://kenyonreview.org/programs/resources-for-teachers/flannery-oconnor/" target="_blank">Mr. Shiftlet said</a>, 'There's some men that some things mean more to them than money.'" I could hear the voice's invisible smirk. "See? You're not the only one who can quote Flannery O'Connor all willy nilly. How's that Beowulf novel coming?"<br />
<br />
"It's not. I put it on hold in February to write a commentary on Romans."<br />
<br />
"Oh, another unfinished project. What a surprise. And how is Romans coming?"<br />
<br />
"I'm on verse 4," I responded.<br />
<br />
"Still in the first chapter?" the voice asked. "How many verses are there in Romans?"<br />
<br />
"I think there are 434."<br />
<br />
"I'm just gonna do some quick math here... Oh my. It's going to take you 23 years at this rate. You'll be lucky if you're still alive by then. After all, dear sweet Uncle Jim--"<br />
<br />
"I'm sick of your lip, imaginary adversary. The bottom line is this: I'm doing the best I know how to do with the resources I have. I'm keeping my family alive, I'm making really good software for my customers, and I'm making it a priority to write. I'm sorry if it doesn't come up to your impossible standards. I'm giving what I've got."<br />
<br />
"Just a couple more questions, " the voice said. "I promise. What apps do you have on your phone?"<br />
<br />
"Um. The usual stuff. Email, Spades, Netflix, podcasts, news--"<br />
<br />
"And how much time," the voice interrupted, "would you say you spend immersed in that tiny enormous digital world that you can exercise complete control over (and also completely controls you)?"<br />
<br />
"Maybe... 20 minutes a day?"<br />
<br />
"That's not what your phone says, and you know it," the voice said. "Try 85 minutes a day. And how long do you spend watching TV shows with your wife in the evenings?"<br />
<br />
"Um. Maybe about an hour, most nights?"<br />
<br />
"And when was the last time you read a novel or book of poetry... or any book, really?"<br />
<br />
"Not sure. Maybe January? But I do read to the kids pretty much every day."<br />
<br />
"So," the voice said, "You're giving everything you've got... except for the 15% of your waking day that you're essentially pissing away."<br />
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Now I was mad. "Just who do you think you are, anyway? What gives you the right to talk to me like this?"<br />
<br />
The voice softened. "I'm you. The obnoxious, driving part of you. My job is to make sure we don't have any regrets. We've used half of our time here already. We're feeling deader every day. Haven't you noticed your hair turning gray? Or that your knees get sore after a five-mile jog?"<br />
<br />
"Yeah," I said. "I guess I have."<br />
<br />
The voice continued. "Can we use our time any better? I think..." It faltered, just for a moment. "I think the world really needs what we have to give. Is there any way we can give it more faithfully? Remember what <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/99/03/28/specials/dillard-drop.html?oref=login" target="_blank">Annie Dillard wrote</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now. The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now. Something more will arise for later, something better. These things fill from behind, from beneath, like well water. Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
After Michelangelo died, someone found in his studio a piece of paper on which he had written a note to his apprentice, in the handwriting of his old age: "Draw, Antonio, draw, Antonio, draw and do not waste time."</blockquote>
</blockquote>
I sighed, rolled out of bed, and pulled on my pajama pants. I shuffled out of the bedroom, resisting the urge to grab my phone on my way out.<br />
<br />
As I measured out the water for my pot of coffee, I said, "Fine. I'll write for a couple of hours. But after that, can we have a nap?"<br />
<br />
"Oh, you poor simple fool," the voice said. "Don't you know we can only nap when the kids are napping? By the time you're done writing this morning, they'll be up and hungry for breakfast and Dad Time. Maybe we can nap when we're dead. Just another half-life to go."<br />
<br />
<i>Note: Just as I finished the final paragraph, this happened: </i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz-SNQA2O0MK3or6uBZso-6vZWFovHh-r4Xa2Zg1xNhxkh_zKONbmZSagcu_90M7wBwVwbcs_5GQdoBA216msYxsDVydUzD1fBMEUoBuXM769jPWfLa8Ij5fsiaohM9J9m5GViIA/s1600/WIN_20200425_06_38_54_Pro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz-SNQA2O0MK3or6uBZso-6vZWFovHh-r4Xa2Zg1xNhxkh_zKONbmZSagcu_90M7wBwVwbcs_5GQdoBA216msYxsDVydUzD1fBMEUoBuXM769jPWfLa8Ij5fsiaohM9J9m5GViIA/s400/WIN_20200425_06_38_54_Pro.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-83392568043099289642020-01-03T13:06:00.001-06:002020-01-03T13:11:27.796-06:00A Prayer Before Debugging<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiduK6SaXpAV0Fsi9PTaWfIvGDUSLAzb2MfFhzhfWjlFW3digOEQ83xre1jHl6slLH4n_SR0mATE-JnkH4UZP7KXHBFa3uyvy02deRx1s0kvV39jwlNbzh0c3y0HzzQjPEOPgWZDQ/s1600/code-stock-photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="668" data-original-width="1000" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiduK6SaXpAV0Fsi9PTaWfIvGDUSLAzb2MfFhzhfWjlFW3digOEQ83xre1jHl6slLH4n_SR0mATE-JnkH4UZP7KXHBFa3uyvy02deRx1s0kvV39jwlNbzh0c3y0HzzQjPEOPgWZDQ/s400/code-stock-photo.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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Almighty Mender<br />
Who works order from chaos,<br />
Who delights<br />
In making broken things new,<br />
Be my Wisdom this day.<br />
Reveal to me the source<br />
Of this problem that preoccupies me,<br />
This error unseen<br />
And unforeseen,<br />
The subtle bug<br />
That wrenched my best-laid plans<br />
Utterly out of joint.<br />
<br />
Remind me,<br />
O my Peace,<br />
That I am dust and ashes.<br />
You can accomplish all things<br />
In a single master-stroke;<br />
I cannot.<br />
Let me sit with these truths<br />
And be satisfied --<br />
Even delighted --<br />
In them.<br />
<br />
Deliver me from<br />
Pride,<br />
Despair,<br />
Frustration,<br />
From an irritation<br />
That lashes out in anger.<br />
May the grace of my Savior<br />
Overflow from my mind,<br />
My lips,<br />
My hands,<br />
As I interact with others<br />
Who also bear Your image,<br />
Others for whom You paid<br />
The same unspeakable price.<br />
<br />
May I move slowly<br />
And thoughtfully today,<br />
Taking small steps<br />
With wide eyes<br />
As I ask, seek,<br />
And knock my way through<br />
This troublesome bit of code.<br />
May I persevere in faith,<br />
Following in Your footsteps,<br />
O Great Redeemer of all things,<br />
Remembering<br />
That those who ask shall receive,<br />
Those who seek shall find,<br />
And those who knock<br />
Shall see doors opened.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/ieic5Tq8YMk" target="_blank">Photo Credit</a>luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-77815830438308663342019-12-25T14:56:00.000-06:002019-12-26T06:36:13.069-06:00Advent: Arrival<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNMrxEBOh_v4JfexGqZml5ha6iN6m8S1KPZeKn_Ne3QGG3ZsA0Y0WuUwxN9Qq8Idae6HnFt61yaVfvD_O2BXRkUzyQeVbKtFqKwZ1Ki4anOga2WSEsXcEIWu1ldyniE4eVVCSE1w/s1600/shutterstock_320061821.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNMrxEBOh_v4JfexGqZml5ha6iN6m8S1KPZeKn_Ne3QGG3ZsA0Y0WuUwxN9Qq8Idae6HnFt61yaVfvD_O2BXRkUzyQeVbKtFqKwZ1Ki4anOga2WSEsXcEIWu1ldyniE4eVVCSE1w/s400/shutterstock_320061821.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The newborn king, heralded by angel armies,<br />
Lay without pomp or ceremony<br />
In a feedbox, surrounded by scents<br />
Of hay and dust and manure,<br />
Cattle and afterbirth and blood.<br />
<br />
Israel’s Great Shepherd was greeted<br />
Not by her high and holy ones,<br />
But by a band of literal shepherds,<br />
Smelly and earthy and common,<br />
Full of faith and wonder and praise.<br />
<br />
The king’s virginal mother sat nearby,<br />
Grateful to be far from Nazareth<br />
And the vicious whispers of neighbors.<br />
She smiled at the shepherds’ amazement;<br />
She, too, had known angel-awe.<br />
<br />
Her husband, discreet and righteous,<br />
Quietly rearranged her bed,<br />
Working to provide more comfort<br />
For the wife who was his<br />
And the child who wasn’t.<br />
<br />
Thus the Maker came to live<br />
Among creatures He had formed,<br />
And He shared their form:<br />
Tiny, helpless, humble, poor, weakness born<br />
To shame the things the World prized most.<br />
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<a href="https://www.themustardseedconspiracy.com/read/arrival" target="_blank">Cross-Posted at the Mustard Seed Conspiracy</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.leafscience.org/rejuvenation-research-is-now-a-mainstream-topic/" target="_blank">Photo Credit</a>luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3757493.post-73471854745815992152019-12-20T14:43:00.000-06:002019-12-20T14:43:00.424-06:00Advent: Reclamation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBKYqTGDlCqGzjEhgpBTPGOTE60X7SFewlmO7l1aMYvXDuqHwdMirsSgsCjN7iSdcRJbqvkod0lt7CH1YK4w-_pticpK8w55AaOutkVDSh_-bilQVzllcYZkzSP5DT_vnSMnR-gg/s1600/186+Trees+and+Undergrowth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1329" data-original-width="1600" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBKYqTGDlCqGzjEhgpBTPGOTE60X7SFewlmO7l1aMYvXDuqHwdMirsSgsCjN7iSdcRJbqvkod0lt7CH1YK4w-_pticpK8w55AaOutkVDSh_-bilQVzllcYZkzSP5DT_vnSMnR-gg/s400/186+Trees+and+Undergrowth.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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His smile was grim as he looked over the land:<br />
Thickets of plum and honey locust twined with poison ivy,<br />
Clearings all but choked with thistles, weeds, and vines.<br />
<br />
He was old enough to remember when this was a vineyard,<br />
Renowned around the world for its fine wines, subtle yet robust,<br />
And now a family of raccoons resided under the ruined winepress.<br />
<br />
The cistern had cracked. The spring that used to feed it<br />
Burbled down the hill now, giving life to other, less ungrateful, lands.<br />
The soil, once rich and fertile, was now drought-dry.<br />
<br />
The grapevines had gone the way that wild grapevines go:<br />
In every direction they could. They were prodigiously leafy<br />
And all but fruitless. The few grapes they did have were tiny and bitter.<br />
<br />
In short, it was a mess. But, like just about anything,<br />
It could be salvaged, given enough time, tears, sweat, and blood.<br />
He had loved this vineyard once, and it was in his heart to remake it.<br />
<br />
He noticed a full-grown timber rattler sunning itself atop a fallen log<br />
And made a mental note to have his son come down<br />
And deal with it. Snakes would have no place in this vineyard.<br />
<br />
It was a huge job, but he was unfazed. He had an abundance<br />
Of time and strength and zeal. No matter the cost, he would accomplish this.<br />
He turned to the nearest tree, unshouldered his ax, and started chopping.<br />
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<a href="https://art-vangogh.com/paris_186.html" target="_blank">Photo Credit</a>luaphacimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01082422747277912266noreply@blogger.com0