A Winter's Poem

Snowed in at home, winter of  2010

We must have had a nice snow on February 1, 2007 here in the Raleigh NC area. I wrote this poem then about a day at home when we couldn't get out to work. Posting it here for my family and friends who are enjoying being snowed in further north this week ...

Snow Day

The coffe pot brew tastes mighty fine
While snowflakes dance and scatter time
As clockless hours give carefree space
To treasure hearth and home's sweet grace.

The unexpected joy of being secluded and still
Gives sagging hearts a winter thrill
While relishing, pondering family things
These tiny moments spin out love that sings.

Kind Hand that fills the skies with weather
You've given me a gentle pleasure;
I thank You for this artic favor,
That gives me pause to wonder, savor. 

Snowy field at my family home in Indiana

~ ~ ~ 
MUSIC LINK

Winter - from FOUR SEASONS by Antionio Vivaldi

Stopping by a Woods on a Snowy Evening - from FROSTIANA by Randall Thompson. A setting of Robert Frost's poem.

Waltz of the Snowflakes - from Tchaikovsky's ballet NUTCRACKER, Bolshoi ballet. 
  

Your Works Are Wonderful

A Psalm to Celebrate LIFE! on January 20, 2013 ...
 

Painting by Margie Chapman

 "I was reading Psalm 139 verse 16 and loved the fact that my 'unformed substance' was already SEEN by my Creator as He took a blank canvas and began painting ME."

 
Psalm 139
 
1 O Lord, you have searched me
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O Lord.

5 You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.

19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord,
and abhor those who rise up against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Night of My Master’s Piano Recital at BSU

Six Months Pregnant with My Son Dennis

 

 

God bless all the beautiful children around the world this day, those whose eyes are open to the sunshine, and those who have yet to greet the morning on the other side of the womb.

~ ~ ~ 
MUSIC LINKS

Here's a video with Psalm 139 and a piano piece by Felix Mendelssohn from my collection of solos on YouTube ... 

Song without Words, Op. 67, No. 1

Prayer of the Children - by Kurt Bestor, sung by Concordia Choir with Rene Clausen directing

Love ... Come ... Sing

The first time I heard Five Mystical Songs by Ralph Vaughan Williams, was an Epiphany for me ... a wonderful awakening to a celebration and renewal of my faith in Christ through words and music that will always stir me to aliveness and alertness in my Christian walk. 

This tapestry of faith, music, and art, began in the early 1600's by George Herbert, an Anglican priest of Welsh birth. The tapestry continues to be stitched in gold with you dear Reader. I hope you'll take the time to listen to this music and reflect on the text. 

Five Mystical Songs is a composition by Ralph Vaughan Williams, written between 1906 and 1911. The work sets four poems by George Herbert, from his 1633 collection The Temple: Sacred Poems. Below are the poem texts to the final three movements from Vaughan Williams work.

Follow the poems below while listening to these movements here:  FIVE MYSTICAL SONGS 3-5

Both the poem and music for "Love Bade Me Welcome" exquisitely present a picture of the tender Love and welcome of God. It's a beautiful piece to listen to anytime, but particularly when we find ourselves lying in the dust and are pretty sure we're a long way from being welcomed into God's house for the Feast. 

3. Love Bade Me Welcome - from Love (III)

Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back.
Guiltie of dust and sinne.
But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack'd anything.
A guest, I answer'd, worthy to be here:
 
Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkinde, ungratefull? Ah, my deare,
I cannot look on thee.
 
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?
Truth Lord, but I have marr'd them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
 
And know you not, sayes Love, who bore the blame?
My deare, then I will serve.
You must sit down, sayes Love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.
 
"The Call" is pregnant with references from and illusions to Christ's words in the gospels. Three stanzas, each beginning with the lovely invitation where the Lord is now invited by us ... Come!

4. The Call - from The Call

Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:
Such a Way, as gives us breath:
Such a Truth, as ends all strife:
Such a Life, as killeth death.
 
Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength:
Such a Light, as shows a feast:
Suc.h a Feast, as mends in length:
Such a Strength, as makes his guest.

Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:
Such a Joy, as none can move:
Such a Love, as none can part:
Such a Heart, as joyes in love.

The final movement, "Antiphon" cements the relationship. Every corner of the world is called upon to join in this song of praise. With such incredible Love welcoming us, feeding us, who can not help but shout and sing?
 
5. Antiphon - from Antiphon (I)

Let all the world in ev'ry corner sing:
My God and King.
The heavens are not too high,
His praise may thither flie;
The earth is not too low,
His praises there may grow.
Let all the world in ev'ry corner sing:
My God and King.
 
The Church with psalms must shout,
No doore can keep them out;
But above all, the heart
Must bear the longest part.
Let all the world in ev'ry corner sing:
My God and King.

CHRIST PANTOKRATOR

in the apse of the Cathedral of Cefalù, Sicily, Italy

Mosaic in Byzantine style

GNU General Public License via Wikipedia

Traveling Intentions

At the beginning of a New Year, I want to share a poem I wrote several years ago that ponders the journey through life. It's a prayer with four sections, each of which begin with a simple petition.  It's written from the point of view of "us" not just "me" in recognition that we do not journey alone, but that others are on this journey too.

Traveling Intentions
by Nancy Gerst, 2008

Lord, protect us from

Arriving on the Golden Side of River Jordan

And finding--as we dog-like disperse the

Waters of baptismal death--

That we've arrived holding tightly to a

Suitcase full of good intentions.

Things we Meant to Do with

Greatest of Goodwill

And kindest, loving thoughts

But never moved toward the doing of

With gritting purpose,

Flinging aside delays and excuses

And stony mountains of impasse

With determination to give Glory to God

As long as we lived and moved and

Had our being in Him.

Help us Lord to arrive with

Battered, bursting, dinged up satchel

Overflowing with humble, loving

Acts of devotion aimed at

Fulfilling our call to love you

With all our heart, soul, mind, and strength

And our neighbors too.

Remind us daily

That you help us carry this

Valise of the Light Burden

And pick us up when we stumble

Over rocky terrains of

Forbidding days

And shed light on all the

Dark Corners where

Spiders of Death lurk

Waiting to give us a great fright

And suck out our joy.

Give us a vision of Jesus,

The Champion Rider,

Who circles us round,

Protecting our small, stained

Vessel of gifts for you,

Gilding them with holy,

Blood-stained Glory,

Intent on ushering us into Your Kingdom,

Tattered or intending-to-be-so,

Or unaware of which we are,

But all the same

Received by recognition

Of the Holy Mark

Writ on us and across

Your hands that pull in the reigns

And settles us into

That unending place of peace and joy

Where all we do is

Real and Present

And unfulfilled dreams

Have ceased to exist.

Thomas Cole, PUBLIC DOMAIN via Wikipaintings 

Study for Pilgrim of the Cross at the End of His Journey

~ ~ ~

MUSIC LINK

Two favorites that I'll share again as they complement this poem so well. 

PILGRIM'S HYMN by Stephen Paulus 

AS WITH ROSY STEPS THE MORN - from Handel's opera Theodora
Here is the text for this one ...

Irene
Ah! Whither should we fly, or fly from whom?
The Lord is still the same, today, for ever,
And his protection here, and everywhere.
Though gath'ring round our destin'd heads
The storm now thickens, and looks big with fate,
Still shall thy servants wait on Thee, O Lord,
And in thy saving mercy put their trust.
 

As with rosy steps the morn,
Advancing, drives the shades of night,
So from virtuous toil well-borne,
Raise Thou our hopes of endless light.
Triumphant Saviour, Lord of day,
Thou art the life, the light, the way!
As with rosy steps. . . da capo