How can our heart speak
While so strongly sedated
By the mind’s dreaming
How Can Our Heart Speak
1
Tag Archives: Poem
Three Lamps Full
Who’s lights burn bright into the night, but those with oil?
Linger still the wait of blows, three lamps full endured.
Fruit of blooded ground born of Wonder-working George.
Now in four day procession loft his banner high.
Christopher suffered of torments;
Theonas gloried Christ as God;
Anthony with his brothers burned;
Still three lamps full light up the night.
Now brothers let us prepare for the Bridegroom comes!
Untainted Glory
Patriarch of Constantinople
Of the great city, that center of spheres
You were born and raised its eminent son.
Noted as judge of men in high repute
Then given to advise the empire’s head.
Led first astray embracing heresy
Then recanting took the heavy schema.
From the lowly repentance monastic
You were recalled to sit upon the throne.
They thought you a servant of thrones of men
But your heart had long belonged to your God.
Holy Tarasius restored union
And the icons of Constantinople.
Hailed high from Rome to Alexandria
Your zeal sealed the end of iconoclasm.
Held the council against the threatening mob
Yet gracefully reproved your enemies.
You endured these controversies and lies
Judgments too wise for the narrow to see.
Scandalizing pious busybodies
Though you offered them their pound of your flesh.
Loyal you did receive disloyalty
Friendly you received only animus.
In thoughtful wisdom you tempted the fools
And in forgiving brought judgment on your self.
What a struggle for peace and unity,
What a strong heart for your brother fellows,
What a hope of that sainthood foretasted,
May our mistakes be as blessed as yours!
And may we know that untainted glory.
Mercy and the Greatness of Law
I have reached the edge
Of what can be said
By a child like me
About mercy
And the greatness
of the Law
Grace demonstrated
Goodness anticipated
So the law remains pure
And the stars secure
Clemency’s hand
upholds the ideal
Law need not compromise
Still grace my surprise
An untarnished glass
Open for sunlight to pass
For the purpose of law
to light up the heart
By mercy freed to inspire
Still helps feet not to tire
Mercy exposes flexibility
In the glory of law’s clarity
Turning a dead contract
into a living bond
Mercy rightfully lauds the lawgiver
Draws what law could not deliver
More than the mind’s contract
Together they draw the soul intact
Nothing is as a wage
but a joyful gift
Mercy’s sweet embrace
Washes peace across my face
Tears of joy draw me in
Where law alone could not win
And so divine purpose
is fulfilled in love
I have reached the edge
Of what can be said
By a child like me
About mercy
And the greatness
of the Law
One Hundred and Twenty Eight
Waged long ago, two kingdoms in forgotten war,
Mazdah struck Jupiter, Shapur felled Jovian.
Shapur, self-proclaimed paragon of ancestors,
By will alone reshaped his kingdom protean.
Hailed he as king o’er kings the son of Ormizd blazed
Tyrant’s light shone wicked by the bodies burning.
Where are your towers over Macedonia,
Or exult praise from history discerning?
The ones your edict slew were stars of higher sphere,
Their crowns far nobler than the horns upon your brow.
Your false virtue’s conceit betrayed your lowly rank,
Humble they rose to where your pride would not allow.
O Sadoc martyr, shepherd called by Simeon,
To whom the feudal lords of earth could not dictate,
Endured torture in a prison long turned to dust
And rose to heaven with one hundred and twenty eight.
