It's the recent work, "Where Faith Will Turn to Sight." Here's the PDF file, their bulletin for Mar. 15.
If you've been a subscriber of the email list for long, you know I'm not a melancholy writer. Usually. Today's offering, then, strikes a more wistful tone than normal. Chalk it up to being home alone, with The Missus off with family.
So today you get imperfect rhyme in places. The second stanza could well serve as a refrain if somebody were minded to write music for it.
So here's the question for the list subscribers: Did the poem leave you feeling a bit sad? What note most caught your attention?
The deluge of news in the world, via our constant connectedness to the Internet, depresses the soul with the perverseness and maliciousness of man. The disciple of Christ protects his mind. He guards his soul from corrupting influences. He keeps away from the negativity. While he engages the people of the world, he raises high barriers against its perspective.
So today's poem focuses on the things — shall we be more precise? — on the One from whom all good and righteousness flow.
The meter is unusual for me, seven feet, which connotes the crowded negative and twisted media that presses in upon us.
Three stanzas were written some days ago. The third, below, was added this morning.
This poem was somewhat inspired by the big news of the last couple of days. Perhaps you can see tints of it in these two short stanzas.
The old iambic pentameter and variations came in handy today, as I picked up a start of two lines made months back. From those two I sustained an AABB rhyme scheme. It finally resolved into 12 robust lines.
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This newest poem is a bit longer than usual, but not by much. A different rhyme scheme as well. A different sound to the topic.
Here are the first two stanzas, of seven.
The background behind the three-stanza poem going to the email list today is, of course, the drubbing that the Brazil soccer team suffered on Tuesday at the hands of Germany in the World-Cup semi-finals.
Costa Rica lost a few days earlier, too, but I'm sure they went home with heads held high. Our team couldn't do that.
The poem is a simple one, an AABB rhyme scheme with four-foot meter. Doesn't get much simpler than that, nor does the truth it contains.
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Before we get to the words, above is a photo of my friend Gerald in east Tenn., made shortly after sunrise. Enjoy the scenery!
Here are two short pieces, one absolutely more positive than the other, but seeing reality for what it is, in all its aspects, helps us to find joy where it must be found.
Enjambment, rhyme, varied meter, a touch of alliteration, this poem doesn't have it all, but it's got a lot. And more stanzas than usual, six that move fast to the end. Just like life.
"I share your pain," we often say —
A friend stands side by side —
But pleasure shared, like children's play,
Swells the gladding tide.
What greater joy or deeper delight
Among the halls of man,
To share the key to human plight,
In God's salvation plan?