Santa's Wish

Santa Claus would like

to teach the world to sing in

perfect harmony.

I myself wonder if all

the world can carry a tune.

The Tenors sing "Santa's Wish"

 

I saw a stable, low and very bare

I saw a stable, low and very bare,

A little child in a manger.

The oxen knew Him, had Him in their care.

To men He was a stranger.

The safety of the world was lying there,

And the world's danger.

     --Mary Elizabeth Coleridge

 Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861-1907)

Tanka on Arrogance

The final two lines in this poem of mine are quoted from Psalm 101:5

in The 1599 Geneva Bible, a 2006 publication of Tolle Lege Press.

My brother got on

his high horse and rode roughshod

over me -- again!

"Him that hath a proud look and

high heart, I cannot suffer."

A is for Arrogance.

As It Turns Out

Robert Wood Lynn is a poet from Virginia, the state in which I live. To read his poem "As It Turns Out" in the Winter 2021 issue (NR 36) of Nashville Review, click here.

A Better Way of "Extending Yourself"

Here is a 2-minute meditation from 365 Windows (1960) by Halford E. Luccock.

Do nothing from selfishness or conceit,

but in humility count others better than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests,

but also to the interests of others.

Have this mind among yourselves,

which is yours in Christ Jesus.

--Philippians 2:3-5 (Revised Standard Version)

     We often hear the phrase "extended himself." It often describes an exceptionally fine performance, such as an athletic event, or making a speech, for instance. Sometimes the words suggest other meanings. A man may "extend himself" like an octopus, reaching out his tentacles to snatch some advantages from someone else. Strongly acquisitive people remind us of a long claw reaching out to snatch.

     There is a better way of "extending yourself." It is the extension of the perceiving, experiencing, and sharing self. Jesus wanted people to extend themselves into other lives, beyond the walls of their own comfort and gain.

     Help us, O God, to remember the plea of Jesus that we be concerned for others as well as ourselves. Amen. 

Increase Our Faith

In the King James Bible, Luke 17:5 reads, "And the apostles said unto the Lord, 'Increase our faith.'" The poem below is the Lord's reply to the apostles.

AND THE LORD SAID UNTO THE APOSTLES

A Poem of Jesus Christ

A found poem from the Bible:

Luke 17:6 (King James Version)

If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed,

ye might say unto this sycamine tree,

"Be thou plucked up by the root,

and be thou planted in the sea";

and it should obey you.

Note: The sycamine is a tree of the Bible that is usually considered a mulberry (Morus nigra).

Sycamine tree in the Land of Israel

The Birthday of Anne Sexton (1928-1974)

 American poet Anne Sexton was born Anne Gray Harvey in Newton, Massachusetts, on November 9, 1928. (To read more about her, click on her two-word name in the preceding sentence.)

The Sesquicentennial of the Birth of Stephen Crane

Stephen Crane was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1871. His books include the poetry collections The Black Riders and Other Lines (Copeland & Day, 1895), War Is Kind (Frederick A. Stokes, 1899), and most famously, the novel, The Red Badge of Courage (D. Appleton & Co., 1895). He died in June of 1900.

-- Poets.org | Academy of American Poets

On Halloween

 The Birthday of John Keats:

Allhallows Eve

On October 31, 1795, English poet

John Keats was born in London.

Happy birthday, Keats!

Your haunting

and mysterious

ballad "La Belle Dame

Sans Merci"

enthralls me this eve.

Happy Halloween! To read Keats's ballad "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" click here.

John Keats (1795-1821)

The Reality of the Love of God

 Jesus said, "This is my commandment,

that you love one another as I have loved you.

Greater love has no man than this,

that a man lay down his life for his friends."

--The Bible: John 15:12-13

(Revised Standard Version)

An American tourist traveling in Palestine was fond of telling of what he called "the miracle" at Nazareth. He was surrounded by the usual crowds of roadside merchants selling souvenirs. He felt that this yelling, pushing crowd everywhere was a terrible nuisance. But one woman surprised him. She said, "Buy something from the woman over there. She hasn't sold anything all day." Such love and sympathy was something new. He said, "Such unselfishness makes me believe in the love of Christ who grew up in Nazareth." Our unselfish acts do more to convince onlookers of the reality of the love of God than many words could do.

Help us to remember, O God, that it is by our acts that we bear witness to thy love. Amen.

--Halford E. Luccock in his book 365 Windows (1960),

a collection of 2-minute meditations for daily use

All-Stars

 ALL-STARS

by Monty Gilmer

What causes the stars

to twinkle

is the light being

distorted as it

passes through

the Earth's atmosphere.

There is one glory

of the stars;

but one star differs

from another star

in glory,

Marilyn Monroe

said, "We are

all of us stars, and

we deserve

to twinkle."

What causes all of

us all-stars

to twinkle?

Reciprocity (in East Africa)

I dedicate this poem of mine to UK-based novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah, who has been awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature. He was born in the Sultanate of Zanzibar, which is now part of Tanzania. The quotation in the poem below is an anonymous Tanzanian saying.

RECIPROCITY (IN EAST AFRICA)

One good turn always

deserves another. "Help me

during the flood," says

the Tanzanian, "and I

will help you during the drought." 

Pastor Keith Marshall on Religious Exemption

 If you consider yourself a Christian, what does your faith in Jesus Christ exempt you from? Read Pastor Keith Marshall's answer to that question in the photo below. Click on the photo to open an enlargement of it.

(Photo posted by Lori Townsend Dropik on Facebook

on September 23, 2021)

Haiku

To an adventurer

Never quench your thirst

for adventure. Adventure

is your cup of tea.

             --Monty Gilmer

An American Thief

 AN AMERICAN THIEF

The quotation in the second stanza is Ephesians 4:28

from the Contemporary English Version of the Bible.

"Old thieves never die,"

said a thief on facing his

thirteenth robbery

charge. "They only steal away."

Once a thief, always a thief?

"If," as Saint Paul said,

"you are a thief, quit stealing.

Be honest and work

hard, so you will have something

to give to people in need."

Monty Gilmer

Fable: The Pot and the Kettle

FABLE: THE POT AND THE KETTLE

by Monty Gilmer

The Pot called the Kettle

black and snapped, "You need to

clean up your act." Indeed

black, the Kettle replied,

"You, blackguardly Pot, ought

to practice what you preach."

A slightly different version of this poem of mine has just been published under the title "Fable" in the 2022 edition of The Almanac for Farmers & City Folk.

A quotation from the Epistle of Paul to the Romans

(New King James Version):

The Bees in the Farmhouse's Walls

 Nineteenth-century

farmhouse for sale: honeybees

living in the walls.

Monty Gilmer

A couple who bought a Pennsylvania farmhouse found 450,000 bees living in the walls. Sara Weaver and her husband were so excited to find the 1872 farmhouse in Skippack for an affordable price that they didn't fret over a seller's disclosure noting "bees in wall" -- and they bought in winter, when the bees were dormant. "I didn't think it would be that big of an issue," said Weaver. "But when spring arrived, that's when we started to see them." They had to pay a contractor $12,000 to move three giant colonies of bees to his honey farm; he estimated they'd been living in the house for about 35 years.

The Week Magazine (August 20, 2021)

Washington Square

August: Thanksgiving for Restoration

THANKSGIVING FOR RESTORATION

from the Bible: Psalm 126 (King James Version)

When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion,

we were like them that dream.

Then was our mouth filled with laughter,

and our tongue with singing:

then said they among the heathen,

"The Lord hath done great things for them."

The Lord hath done great things for us;

whereof we are glad.

Turn again our captivity, O Lord,

as the streams in the south.

They that sow in tears

shall reap in joy.

He that goeth forth and weepeth,

bearing precious seed,

shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,

bringing his sheaves with him.

HAIKU: AUGUST

A Walk in the Woods

An anonymous quotation reads, "I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees." The original source of that quotation, often attributed to Henry David Thoreau, has not been identified. Below is a haiku of mine based on the anonymous quotation above. The first line of this haiku of mine is exactly quoted from Walden; or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau.

I went to the woods

and walked in them. I came out

taller than the trees.

 Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)