Poem

Lamentation for the death of a friend

I have finished many things today
a book, a cup of coffee
but I have not, nor will ever
finish mourning you

I have completed the things I must
clocked out, gone home, but yet
The things I’ve left unsaid, undone
in the presence of a tender friend
are crowding all my thoughts
sowing grief in many places

in memories of a man
whom the autumn of years had yet to set
on hair not yet fully gray

I have closed out the day
the door, my eyes
but I cannot close the casket
still open; still warm in feeling
still framed by flowers and weeping

You are free; moved on
but I cannot

only bare forward the measure of injustice
in worldly terms, pray for understanding

I picture you seated at a table full
name card in front of you
Laughing where tears can not live
But where you will, forever more

You are gone
but memories are not
you have finished, here
but here I sit
remembering, mourning
believing the day will come
when we will take hands with a hearty shake and a loud amen

poem

Juarez

The ground moans

from labor pains

A fertile land

straining under

faulty stewardship

Astray

The sheep wander the

high desert

thirsty

Book Review: Surprised by Joy

‘Surprised by Joy’ by C.S. Lewis

This was a fascinating look into the young life of a modern pillar of the literary faithful. Lewis plunges in to the wonders, mysteries and sorrows that shaped him and travels through his life, setting up his conversion by the closing of the tale. If you are looking for a thorough go of his life, search on, this story is only about his younger years and leaves out detailed accounts of many aspects of his life.

The parts he does present are magnificent. I found the descriptions of the British education system very interesting. I wonder how we became so narrow minded in our approach on this side of the pond. Perhaps, we can say it’s the fruit of a government indoctrination program…I digress. Lewis searches his early relationships with depth, humility and balance. He presents the phases of his spiritual and intellectual growth without pulling punches or over-doing the critique of his own thoughts.

Lewis is brilliant and the depths of his interests and ability to swallow antiquity and mythological traditions is staggering. His account of WWI is sobering.

His description of Joy left something to be desired and he pigeon holed himself in the opening chapter by communicating to the reader that if you had never felt that kind of joy than you should put the book down and move on. I found, by the end, he makes his description of joy null and void. So the moment in the early chapter is unnecessary.

There was a real red flag in the section about buggery in his school days in the chapter entitled ‘The great Knock’. His strange dismissal and approach to social hypocrisy were weird, frankly.

All and all, he tells a very good story about the way God sovereignly brought him, through all the events of his young life, to the true Faith. We are grateful to him for it. The last two chapters, ‘Checkmate’ and ‘A New Beginning’ are superb reading; very edifying.

Quotable moments:
p.222 “…it matters more that Heaven should exist than that we should ever get there. “

p. 226 “For the first time I examined myself with a seriously practical purpose. And there I found what appalled me; a zoo of lusts, a bedlam of ambitions, a nursery of fears, a harem of fondled hatreds. My name was legion.

Autobiographical tittles

This amazingly superficial interview took place a few years ago. I was in the writing program at Jack Straw Productions, a fellowship I am proud of. I had just been converted. The interview leaves much to be desired, but its interesting none the less.


http://www.jackstraw.org/programs/writers/WritersForum/04/Mike_main.html

Forms: Epithalamium

Epithalamium: specifically refers to a form of poem that is written for the bride. Or, specifically, written for the bride on the way to her marital chamber.

It was originally among the Greeks a song in praise of bride and bridegroom, sung by a number of boys and girls at the door of the nuptial chamber. According to the scholiast on Theocritus, one form was employed at night, and another, to arouse the bride and bridegroom on the following morning. In either case, as was natural, the main burden of the song consisted of invocations of blessing and predictions of happiness.

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

113. Epithalamium

By John Gardiner Calkins Brainard

I SAW two clouds at morning, Tinged with the rising sun, And in the dawn they floated on, And mingled into one: I thought that morning cloud was blest, It moved so sweetly to the west. I saw two summer currents Flow smoothly to their meeting, And join their course, with silent force, In peace each other greeting: Calm was their course through banks of green, While dimpling eddies played between. Such be your gentle motion, Till life’s last pulse shall beat; Like summer’s beam, and summer’s stream, Float on, in joy, to meet A calmer sea, where storms shall cease— A purer sky, where all is peace.

Opening Remarks

Reader

I plan on recording my views and feelings about the written word, in all its shapes and sizes.

Glory to God in the Highest.

Mike kloss