Category Archives: Poetry or Lyrics

Holy Week 2015: “Amazing grace, it reached as far as me” (Daniel Jepsen)

Note from Dan: The chorus after verse 4 is not original.  The poem can be sung to the tune of Londonderry Air. That tune has been used for a wide variety of songs, including Danny Boy, and the beautiful hymn, I Cannot Tell. • • • When time was young, and glory filled the garden, TheContinue reading “Holy Week 2015: “Amazing grace, it reached as far as me” (Daniel Jepsen)”

Holy Week 2015: Long Barren (Christina Rossetti)

Thou who didst hang upon a barren tree, My God, for me; Though I till now be barren, now at length, Lord, give me strength To bring forth fruit to Thee. Thou who didst bear for me the crown of thorn, Spitting and scorn; Though I till now have put forth thorns, yet now StrengthenContinue reading “Holy Week 2015: Long Barren (Christina Rossetti)”

Ash Wednesday: Psalm 51 in music

For Ash Wednesday Two renditions of Psalm 51 “Have mercy on me, O God,     according to your steadfast love . . .” • • • Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts Psalm 51:14-17 O God of mercy, hear my call, My loads of guilt remove; Break down this separating wall, That bars me from thyContinue reading “Ash Wednesday: Psalm 51 in music”

Sundays with Michael Spencer: February 8, 2015

Note from CM: In 2015 we will mark five years since the death of Michael Spencer, the Internet Monk. Today, we continue our “Sundays with Michael” series with an excerpt from a post that was originally published in February 2007. • • • The Bible not only contains poetry, but it is poetic in its entire visionContinue reading “Sundays with Michael Spencer: February 8, 2015”

Damaris Zehner: The Undeserved Grace of a New Beginning

The Undeserved Grace of a New Beginning A Villanelle by Damaris Zehner God blesses me with gifts of time and space To feel the rising warmth of one more day And from the darkness see the dawn of grace. Each spring green growth and birdsong will replace The gloom and bitter cold that once heldContinue reading “Damaris Zehner: The Undeserved Grace of a New Beginning”

For my wife on our 36th wedding anniversary

A poem by Wendell Berry . . . OVER THE EDGE To tell a girl you loved her — my God! — that was a leap off a cliff, requiring little sense, sweet as it was. And I have loved many girls, women too, who by various fancies of my mind have seemed loveable. ButContinue reading “For my wife on our 36th wedding anniversary”

Damaris Zehner: Why I Garden

Why I Garden Damaris Zehner What force is it that every year pushes upward from the pod, believing in foliage, flower, and fruit, believing that this year perfection will be reached? I’m not stupid. I can remember that every August my vegetables sprawl on the ground, faint with fecundity and offended by the mob thatContinue reading “Damaris Zehner: Why I Garden”

Not Your Ideal Crowd, I’d Say

not your ideal crowd, i’d say so many people come to hear him from everywhere, of every kind no religious crowd this one! check out that bloke over there loser if i’ve ever seen one not an ounce of righteousness in him wouldn’t know a tithe from a toothbrush couldn’t find genesis if you handedContinue reading “Not Your Ideal Crowd, I’d Say”