Emmett Till

EMMETT TILL

by James A. Emanuel

I hear a whistling

Through the water.

Little Emmett

Won't be still.

He keeps floating

Round the darkness,

Edging through

The silent chill.

Tell me, please,

That bedtime story

Of the fairy

River Boy

Who swims forever,

Deep in treasures,

Necklaced in

A coral toy.

Today is the 70th anniversary of the murder of Emmett Till. To read more about Emmett Till, click here.

"The Death of Emmett Till" is a folk song that Bob Dylan wrote and sang. To read the lyrics of that song, click here. Listen now to Bob Dylan singing 'The Death of Emmett Till" in the music video below.

My Arrogant Younger Brother

The final two lines in the second stanza are those

of Proverbs 21:4 from The New English Bible.

Brother on his high 

Horse looks down on me and rides 

Roughshod over me.

I will not sit at table 

With my proud, pompous brother.

Brother on his high 

Horse looks down on me and rides 

Roughshod over me.

"Haughty looks and a proud heart --

These sins mark a wicked man."

The Prayer of Abandonment

"Charles de Foucauld is remembered today as a desert hermit and missionary, and as author of 'The Prayer of Abandonment,' a petition of radical faith and surrender." So begins "A Short Sketch of Charles de Foucauld's Life" by American writer William Woolfitt in his poetry collection Charles of the Desert: A Life in Verse (Paraclete Press, 2016). "The Prayer of Abandonment," without its title, is the epigraph in that poetry collection. Here is that prayer.

I abandon myself into your hands;

do with me what you will.

Whatever you may do, I thank you:

I am ready for all, I accept all.

--Charles de Foucauld

1858 - 1916

To read more about Charles de Foucauld, click here.