Poems

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness . (Psalms 29:2) Right in the midst of pressing obligations and wondering what I need to do next, I hear God talking to me.

Let this place be a haven for all those seeking spiritual uplift and peace. Let this place be an oasis for all those hungering and thirsting after Truth.

God sends everyone to Nineveh to prophesy, but, Jonah-like, we turn our backs and try to flee. Can you flee God's good command? Do you seek the belly of a whale? Return, wanderer, and bless the Nineveh you're bound for.

Lift up your life as loving sacrifice held like a cup in your hands and that one purpose, poised and deliberate, shall by His merits sustain you, until nothing remains but the pure distillation of all you would most willingly see accomplished, when, all hurts healed and all hardness at last annealed, you become your offering —the finally valid fulfillment of the heart's one absolute pledge. STEPHEN GOTTSCHALK.

Pen y llwyn —master of the coppice— the Welsh thrush is at his best in a sudden gale. In the fiercest wind, there he is defiantly perched on the topmost branch singing alone in all that wild swaying up above the torn leaves.

Jesus said I was not dead. He knew the light of Life shone in my heart.

As in the beginning, we are not without love. What else but Love-power could gather ideas to make a creation? What else but the spirit of Love would brood upon the face of the waters like a great Mother-wing, orchestrating our individualities beneath it? What else but Christ-love—by banishing the clouds of sin that hide us from one another—can show us spiritual creation already making music? It's love that opens our eyes to teeming creation.

I dreamt I was plowing through time— sticky stuff now holding me back now pulling me forward faster than I wanted to go. All the while I seemed trapped, longing to cease my plowing to extricate myself from all this treacherous substance— to find an unimpeded and unhurried progress.

Praise now eternal day upon whose scroll Love limns its endless harmonies. The light That emanates from ever-active Soul Knows not one portent of a coming night.

As when a child, confident of a love That frees him by adventuring to grow, Turns from his play and climbs his father's chair— Secure of welcome when the puppy's shove Topples his balance, or he longs to show His latest art, or brims with love to share, So would I turn and climb, when racked with fear Of pain and lack or warmed with tempting glow Of human praise, from triumph and despair For prayerful lap time: wan worlds disappear In Father-Mother's care. HUGH PENDEXTER III.