David of Chapter 16 and 17

Who is this youth, fresh from wooly fields,

Emissary bearing bread and cheese

To trembling troops in tented camp?

It had been priorly said,

When a skillful harpist was sought

To allay the darkness of a tortured king’s soul,

“I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite,

Skillful in playing,

A man of valor

A man of war

Prudent in speech,

A man of good presence”

And then this final note, the capstone cadence,

“And the Lord is with him.” . . .

So Many Stars, So Many Flowers

So many stars, so many flowers adorning

Life’s paths from crystal cathedral heavens

To earth’s deepest bourgeoning bowers.

I cannot contain all the joy they sing out,

All their ripening beauty too rich for rhetoric,

Each a magic universe bustling about.

Is this streak of unseen light wasted,

An anonymous eddy in time?

Is that velvet petal, demure in its forest floor retreat,

Unspectacular because it lacked my gaze? . . .

For This Good Day

For this good day let thanks arise,

Let sinews birth forth praise.

With God-tuned mind let songs resound,

Shout out with heart ablaze.

A night of rest, now morning sun;

New duties press and call

Toward ripening fruit of tasks well done,

Deeds shining, great and small.

At cusp of day resolve is fresh,

It whinnies, snorts so bold;

Lord, give us grace when burdens press

To strive and never fold.

Good gift of life, sweet juice of hope

This day a path toward home,

Strong Spirit help us more than cope,

Infuse with your Shalom.  

                                                     Nancy Gerst © 2014


This poem may be sung hymn style to the English folk tune FOREST GREEN, CMD.

"This Evening of Content"

Grace Before Sleep

How can our minds and bodies be

Grateful enough that we have spent

Here in this generous room, we three,

This evening of content?

Each one of us has walked through storm

And fled the wolves along the road;

But here the hearth is wide and warm,

And for this shelter and this light

Accept, O Lord, our thanks tonight.

Sara Teasdale, 1884-1933

Sung here in a setting by Susan LaBarr by the East Carolina University Chamber Singers

Happy at home, November 2013