Poetry

The following is a selection of some of the poems I composed between 2001 and 2004.  I have not written much poetry since 2004 due to a lack of leisure, academic studies and shifting interests.

Sonnets

  

Grains of Sand

In thought, sometimes like Shakespeare I deplore

“My dear time’s waste.”  Here on this foreign land,

What if my moments were fine grains of sand

Asleep upon a shining shipless shore?

Is it too late for me to now implore

God’s clemency before I have to stand

Exposed when my own judgment is at hand

And all my deeds are scattered on the floor?

Forgive me Lord; While grains of sand remain

Within my hourglass may I bewail

My sins and waste of time and shun what’s vain;

And you O Lord, blow into my sail,

Emblazoned with a phoenix form, your Ghost

To guide my voyage to your celestial coast.

  

Omnipresence

This world is my abode in which I dwell,

Where flowers blossom and each song-bird sings

And where the sun ascends on golden wings

Over the oceans where they sink and swell.

I do not worship nature nor my shell,

Nor Pan beside the crystal forest springs;

I worship not the sepulcher of kings,

But God, whose awesome greatness I will tell.

The spirit of the Lord is everywhere

And permeates all things: the rocky ground,

The azure seas, sweet zephyrs, and earth’s air;

There is no place that He cannot be found.

He is the God who is beyond compare;

Distinct from all, His love is without bound. 

Medieval Annunciation

Rejoice O lovely lady of Heaven’s lake,

For your sweet soul is graceful as a swan;

You shall be queen who once was just a pawn

And many maids will follow in your wake;

For know, fair virgin, delicate as a flake,

That you shall be the mother of a fawn

Whose glory will shine like the radiant dawn

Right at the moment of its golden break.

The stag will let the castle’s draw-bridge down

And from His fortress will leap forth to find

His scattered people on the wooded height;

Then, blessed maiden, you shall get a crown

And your great son will heal the humble blind

Who will exalt in God’s eternal light.

  

Autumn

O when the sky grows dark and ominous

And all the lively leaves that hang o’erhead

Change into shades of gold and brown and red

And slowly fall and sleep in peacefulness,

Then start to meditate in quietness

On the important moment mortals dread

When they must leave this earth when they are dead

And travel to the realms mysterious.

Ah, Autumn, sacred symbol of my death,

O prophecy of yet a glorious Spring,

Though others shun you, I shall greet your showers;

And when old Winter chills me with his breath,

Then at the warm bright Reawakening,

May my bones blossom like a field of flowers.

  

Jerusalem the Golden  

Jerusalem, the Golden, at long last!

Hail city of my fathers and my King!

If you are strong, your faithfulness will bring

You joy, and your redemption will come fast.

Faintly I hear the silver trumpets blast,

And I can hear the swelling voices sing,

"Take shelter in the Lord beneath His wing,

And listen to the prophets of the past!"

In spirit, let us travel back in time

To contemplate His birth in Bethlehem,

And carrying our cross we all shall climb

The Via Dolorosa after Him;

Then shall we see the myst'ry most sublime,

His Resurrection in Jerusalem!

 

I’ve Seen Him

I’ve seen Him in the fiery golden sunset of the West;

I’ve seen Him with His scarlet blood, flowing from His chest;

I’ve seen Him in the distant past, in ages long forgotten;

I’ve seen Him in great agony, lying in the dust.

I’ve seen Him, offering to sinners mercy and repentance;

I’ve seen Him, loving humanity with a burning love;

I’ve seen Him, thirsting for the love and true devotion of people;

I’ve seen Him, calling to everyone to come and be His friend.

I’ve seen Him, although I’m no prophet, and have seen no vision;

I’ve seen Him where others failed to, though staring at what I see;

I’ve seen Him in the Eucharist, where He is truly present,

And surely, the great and mighty One my eyes have seen, sees me.

The Tree of Life

(Composed for the Feast of Corpus Christi, June 17, 2001)

I

In the beginning

Was the Word.

When God spoke the Word,

Everything came into being.

On the sixth day,

He created Adam, the first man,

And created his wife, Eve,

By taking a rib from Adam’s side

And forming it into a whole being.

He put them in the Garden of Eden

And said they were not to eat the fruit

From the tree in the center of the garden,

The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The Serpent seduced Eve.

She ate the fruit,

And gave some to her husband.

Thus sin entered the world.

God gave them clothes to cover their sinful bodies

And knowing that if man were to eat the fruit

From the Tree of Life,

He would live forever,

He expelled them and stationed the Cherubim

And the fiery revolving sword

To guard the way to the Tree of Life.

II

The archangel Gabriel was sent to Mary.

When she said the word,

The Word was made flesh

And dwelt among us.

Thus, the humble Mary

Became the Ark of the New Covenant,

For He is the Living Bread that came down from Heaven.

He was born in Bethlehem, the House of Bread,

And this is what He taught:

The bread that I will give them

Is my flesh for the life of the world.

My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.

This is my body which will be given up for you.

Anyone who eats of this bread will live forever.

This is my blood,

The blood of the New and Everlasting Covenant,

Which will be shed for many

So that sins may be forgiven.

God led Him into the Garden of Gethsemane,

Where He accepted His Father’s will.

Mary, the New Eve, crushed the head of the Serpent.

The New Adam carried the cross to the place of the Skull,

The spot where Adam was buried,

And they stripped His sinless body of His clothes.

They nailed Him to the Tree and

Behold!

The fruit dangled from the Tree

Ripe and ready for the picking!

The blood ran down the tree trunk

And into the hole in the ground.

Now is the time!

Drink, drink deep Ancient One,

Adam, father of all nations!

Open your jawbone and drink His blood,

The juice from the fruit of the Tree of Life.

Now you shall live forever!

On this sixth day,

You are a new creation!

Jesus, the Immortal One died,

And was pierced in His side by a lance.

Blood and water gushed out,

And thus the Church, His beautiful bride was made!

“A blessing on the man who puts his trust in Yahweh,

With Yahweh for his hope.

He is like a tree by the waterside

That thrusts its roots to the stream:

When the heat comes, it feels no alarm,

Its foliage stays green;

It has no worries in a year of drought,

And never ceases to bear fruit.”

The ban was lifted

And the fiery revolving sword rested

From guarding the Tree of Life.

The leaves of the Tree of Life

Became the cure of the pagans.

Now there is free access to the fruit of the Tree of Life,

Corpus Christi.