“Lord God of hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget–lest we forget!”

—‘Recessional’ Rudyard Kipling


WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 — U.S. intelligence has concluded that an audiotape of Osama bin Laden broadcast last week is real and was recently recorded, providing the first evidence in almost a year that the al-Qaida leader is alive, a White House spokesman said Monday. The audiotape, first broadcast on an Arab-language TV network, does not appear to have been altered or edited, suggesting it is what it sounds like: bin Laden promising more terrorism.…Previous public statements from bin Laden have served as preludes to terrorist attacks, officials said.


Prayer For Those Having Arrived at
A Tuesday Morning Late

"All changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.”

—‘Easter, 1916’ W. B. Yeats


O Father in Heaven, First Cause and
Creator of All Things;
Thou who in the beginning
Madest earth and wind and fire
And saw that all was good;
And in thine all-seeingness,
Eternal as faith,
Thou didst keep too thy watch
Upon this day,
As doth the shepherd over his flock,
Even as the approaching storm did move
Upon the Earth,
As thy Spirit moveth upon
The face of the waters.
And thy hand movéd not.

Forgive us this day, O Lord,
We thy children,
Who understandeth as children,
And seeth not that thou moveth
In ways mysterious
Thy works to perform;
Yet seeth only in our callow sight
(Even so thy blessed gift)
That Thou didst perceive the tempest
In all its imminent and terrible beauty
And gave no sign unto us,
Thy children,
But didst only watch as,
Like the wolf unto the lamb,
It swept upon the Great Forest,
Mercilessly;
Whereupon it did lash out,
Its terrible lightning striking first one,
And then another,
Of the giants of the forest,
High upon their tops:
Yea, thunder-shuddering them,
As with a vengeance,
Unto their very roots,
Whereupon they did burst into flame;
Wherein its creatures, thy creatures,
Who did dwell therein,
Cried out unto thee even then,
O Father in Heaven,
Frantic of impending death;
And upon whom Thou didst only look down,
In all thy watchful and goodly beneficence,
Upon they, thy wailing children,
From on high,
Thy heavenly manse,
Uninterveningly
(Even as we gaze down
Upon the lowly ant who,
Having lost the trail after its own kind,
Doth rush frantically hither and thither,
As if all were irreparably lost)
And hear, in their terror,
Their wailing,
Which did only increase
When did the mighty giants
Shake and tremble
Of the firestorm visited upon them
And fall down, down,
Oh, so frightfully,
Yea, even unto the forest floor
Where they lay,
With their like downfallen creatures,
In smoke and smoldering cinders,
And ashes,
Dust into dust,
Wherein no more was heard
But were silent all.

And yet the downfalling tempest,
Unlike Thou, O Lord,
Lingered not to see the woeful reapings
Of its hellish wrath,
For quickly had it moved
Upon the face of the earth
That it might visit unto other of thine
Blest and earthly paradises
Its ferment and its lightning,
Striking lower, yea, lower yet
Until, prodigal of its own fury,
It too lay fallen and spent;
Wherefore much and many
Were the smoke and ashes
Upon the land
Which abideth yet.

And forgive us, too, O Lord,
In our grieving,
We thy tempest-shaken multitudes,
If the lightning hath blinded us,
This day of days,
To thine infinite wisdom
And mercy
And seeth not that it is but a breath
Of thy Master Plan
Which, like unto the wind,
Moveth ever and mysterious
In its ways
Though we see it not
As we see not spirit.

Pray, forgive us too, All-merciful,
If we fail of seeing,
In our anguished and sorrowing hearts,
That from the ashes and dust
Of the fallen
Shall spring forth anew
A forest afresh, more glorious still
Whence shall arise
Yea, even as the phoenix,
More lofty Colossians yet;
Wherein shall be born again,
And dwell anew,
Such creatures of thine own making
And image
That, when enough of storm and tempest
Havevisited unto them,
And sorrow,
Then shall arise and sweep over them
A great and lasting peace
In this, our earthly world,
Our only world;
Earthly paradise
Of thine own Almighty and loving hand
Which, for all its tempests
And firestorms,
Its downfallings,
And ashes
Is yet blest and beautiful,
And shall be more beauteous still
Though it cometh late
And we know not when.

Hear now, O Father,
This solemn prayer
This year of our Lord,
This day,
This morn,
This Tuesday.



Post Edited (09-11-03 04:12)

silence

very good. I can't say a word....too touching.

silent siren

This ...
Is why I even try -
why I even pretend to know
poetry...

Thank you for this David,
this poem
this,
to me,
is a masterpiece


~Syn~

Siren,

I'm glad this touched you in some(?) way as, either for its political or religious overtone, or simply for the biblical (King Jamesian) language, it will be off-putting to many. Do hope you got your words back by now.

Syn,

I'm pleased you thought so well of this, also, in light of the foregoing. As I notice you yourself have taken the liberty of sprinkling a few 'thou's and 'dost's around in ‘A Portrait of Kate,’ I would like to proffer you a word of caution: Even in the appropriate context, this language sounds stilted to many a modern ear, especially if they are not conversant with the Bible or literary works from the King James era. In particular, I would strongly advise not mixing the two. This is just compounding the problem. Personally, I love the language of the Bible even though I a confirmed atheist (this will probably surprise many as it may appear at first reading that I am a devout Christian). A subsequent reading may reveal that it is a subtly veiled, yet nonetheless satirical rebuke of God.

While I am still in the mode of splitting hairs as per definitions; This isn't really a prayer David. It is in fact more a sermon, and it is actually sermons like this, and their subtle twisting of the words of the bible to the preacher's own ends that have kept me out of churchs (other than at Christmas, when those beautiful carols call out to me...), these many years.

Brucefur
PS: I am neither trying to pick on you here or elsewhere, nor am I offended to any degree.

Bruce,

It is what it is: a satire. Didn't you read my response above to syn? Of course I am 'twisting' the words of the Bible to suit my own ends. That's what one does in satire. It sounds to me as if you think that I am actually offering up a reverential prayer to God. Could it be that I did my job so well that you didn't recognize it for what it is? I rather suspect your peevishness with this piece has more to do with your anti-clerical leanings than with an honest critique of it as a literary work. While I would not, and do not, call it a poem per se, I nonetheless feel I have achieved in it no small measure of lyric beauty and emotional appeal. You did not comment in any way on its relative artistic merit, but have rather dismissed it, thrown the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak, over some misguided pedantry over the definition of a prayer, when in fact the irony is in its being used here, as I intended, as quite the opposite of a prayer. This is on a par with our mutual friend Mr. Foolisher's red herrings upon 'Natural Enemies' (whose payment to this office, I can't help noticing, is now TWO days overdue. It must be that the email is very slow these days. Yes, certainly that is it.)

Bruce, unless you want to come back with an honest critique of this as to its relative literary merit (or not), as you perceive it, then I must subsequently dismiss you, as I do the aforementioned esteemed gentleman, as no kind of a legitimate critic, but only someone who is rather fond of red herrings.

And I, too, Bruce, wish you no ill will. It's just that sometimes your opinions and philosophies (as I'm certain mine do you) exasperate me and call me to arms.

Well, that really is it. Two and a half hours last night addressing skye et al, and now a like amount of time this morning addressing you and jay——I really must stop this emule madness. Yes, that's it, of course, I'll start first thing tomorrow.

D.M.

"seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him."
Proverbs 26:12

confusing use of poetic language, could this be more of a cry out than making fun of God. Though you are a devout atheist, what was your inner self pushing you towards when developing this work?
Matt

David,

My apologies for mixing two things together.

1) I was stating that the title was improper, that it should read Sermon for those having... That was in fact my critique, and the only one that I have with the work. Although almost every stanza is started in a Prayer format, it does seem to rapidly stray back to a sermon nearly ever time. You did end it in a classic prayer style however, so should you keep the title as is, you do certainly have grounds for argument. I think that in actual fact, that the last stanza is the best one in the poem. It is elegant, precise, and smooth. It sounds less like a rant than some of the rest of the piece.

Yes the poem itself didn't appeal to me, but that was simply a matter of personal taste, because as you know I very much liked the poem that Mr. Probisher disliked so much.

2) I was giving you my own personal experiences with Church. The two were separate comments and shouldn't have been taken together. I can certainly see that were they to be, that it would appear to be an attack upon the poem. Which is in fact not what I was doing.

I know that I dropped the ball on one of your previous poems and never got around to backing up my critique. My apologises for that as well; too little time in the day.

I hope that you find that slightly more constructive.

Brucefur

bRUCEFUR

I KNOW A CHURCH THAT GIVES IT TO US JUST LIKE IT IS FOUND. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO LEARN WHERE THERE IS ON NEAR YOU. FEEL FREE TO SEND ME AN EMAIL.

I UNDERSTAND EXACTLY WHAT YOU MEAN ABOUT THE TWISTING OF BIBLICAL TEXT AND INTERPRETATIONS.


LOVIE

1st Thessalonians 1:10

And to waite for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.

LMH,

Thank you for the offer, but in actual fact I am pretty solid in my beliefs, and have a very well loved mentor, who makes herself available to me 24/7 should God ever need an interpreter.

I have a pretty good bible, written in modern verse, so as not to confuse me unduly with all of the thees and thous, although, I am by no means a fundamentalist.

Well I am here, I had mind as well clutter up poor David's thread (while providing him with free advertising space) and ask you LMH; who ARE you?

I mean you have been around for a while now, but I don't recall ever seeing your profile, and will admit that I have no idea if you are male or female, and so have defaulted on the female side. My apologies if I am mistaken.

Brucefur
PS: David, I liked the quotes that you used at the top.

Lest we forget

David I thank you, your heart and soul were in the right place

I know I will never forget the horror the tradegy of September 11, 2021

peace be with you all.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. (Aristotle)

Thanks for the bump David, beautifully done.

Les

Bump

and another. Hold up the memory...

si
bends head

This is very very good, I like it. You said: "A subsequent reading may reveal that it is a subtly veiled, yet nonetheless satirical rebuke of God."
Yes, the tone of satire becomes obvious as soon as I read these lines:

And seeth not that thou moveth
In ways mysterious
Thy works to perform;

But didst only watch as,
Like the wolf unto the lamb,
It swept upon the Great Forest,

The Shepherd didn't do what He was supposed to do.

I like the questioning tone in your poem. A lot of people tried to write similar poems about 9/11, but most of them didn't do a good job.

I believe that God exists. But I don't think God likes his creatures to follow Him with blind faith. I think He wants them to question Him and His actions(or lack thereof, since most of us can't see them with our eyes) constantly and obtain the answers through their own experience. When I was in high school, I had a classmate who was extremely religious. When I talked to him and asked him questions about a certain things related to God, basically all he said can be summarized in a few phrases that he kept repeating: "God is Truth!" or "God is Good!". It annoyed me a little.

Sometimes there are no answers to why God did a certain things. Things happened simply because... they happened. God didn't let 9/11 happen because a new paradise will arise from the ashes(I'm not sure if you were being sarcastic or not). 9/11 happened as swift and unexpected as when a wolf sinks its fangs into the neck of its prey. And I think that's the way in which God works. Bad things happen in nature all the time, and they're part of the mysterious world that God created.

David, I was just reflecting on yesterday and this poem came to mind. Very inspirational.

Les

a very timely bump indeed les

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. (Aristotle)

David,
You have a knack for controversy. It was well done - however politically and religiously heated... but, it's a good thing! I was inspired - the last 6 lines of the second to last stanza really inspired me - good job!

Thank for bumping, I too love it (sniffle sniffle).

"1 Corinthians 15
19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable."

This is the verse that keeps me alive.

Lest we forget.

Les

Amen.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. (Aristotle)

If anyone is interested here is Kelly Malone's poem on the same subject which was posted here many years ago:


Distant Witness (A 9/11 tribute)

I don't live close; I did not hear the thunder or the crash.
I didn't hear the cries for help or see the metal thrash.

I didn't witness buildings fall. This was on TV.
I didn't run from plumes of smoke. I know that wasn't me.

I didn't arrive with photo in hand looking for my wife.
I didn't tell my only son his dad has lost his life.

I didn't send my oldest child into a burning tower.
To try and save whomever he could and die within an hour

I cannot say that I was hurt while saving someone's life.
I cannot say I've ever lost a daughter, son or wife.

I do not daily pass this site where bodies still decay.
While people who must get to work must pass it everyday.

I am not brave; I do not grieve for loss beyond compare.
I know I am not a party to the death and the despair.

In some small way I'd like to say I hold you in my heart.
Although this won't amount too much I hope it is a start.

There was a part inside of me that died upon that day.
I cannot look at life the same or trust in the same way.

I look to God to give me strength, my trust is in his grace.
And deep inside within my soul, I find a peaceful place.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/2021 03:44PM by les712.