The Faded Rose

Walking through the street
The roses are faded;
Their scent majestic
Distinct above all other scents.
It looks like an aged woman
Who just yesterday was most beautiful among the flowers
And now, wrinkled, alive only for a short time.
Faded, her scent is strong, 
Still among the most beautiful
But the flower fades
And wrinkles.

On Moses and Jesus

I literally looked at about 30 artifacts from Egypt{}, from the Sinai peninsula, that had Hebrew inscriptions on them. So… yes, I did know that God’s name was El Yahweh. And I do know that a people group called the Habiru migrated out of Mesopotamia, into Egypt, and then finally settled into Canaan, after crossing the Red Sea. They created quite a stir, actually, enough for Pharaoh to attack them, and they were probably the same people called the “Sea Peoples” who destroyed the Hittites in the Bronze Age Collapse. I also know that there’s a lot of Egyptian references in the Torah and actual borrowed words from Late Bronze Age Egyptian in it. There’s a lot more than that.

A people group who were passed down a monotheistic culture migrated from Mesopotamia, into Egypt and then codified their religion in Canaan. That is what the evidence suggests. And then kept a concurrent record of all their kings and priests and judges from the time they conquered Canaan, even until this day.

As far as Jesus, the Gospels were written as early as 40AD he died in 31AD. We know this, because Paul accompanied Luke, and Luke met apostles such as Mary and John and Peter, and of course we have Papias telling us who wrote Mark and Matthew from St. John, and various surviving fragments tell is it was Papias who dictated the book from John, like Baruch did Jeremiah.

And the flood, there’s lots of evidence for that. The Bible talks about Pangea and Dinosaurs, and there’s also ancient artefacts that have dinosaurs on them.

Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox

When Israel separated from Judah, was Israel any less Hebrew? I think the schism of Protestant, Orthodox and Catholic is like that. Israel, Ephraim and Judah. Certainly, Israel went off and served Baal, but there were true saints among them, like Elisha and Elijah who contended Jezebel and Ahab.

I love reading Martyr's Mirror because it takes that subject, saying the church existed in a group called the Waldenses, but they have very detailed accounts of people's martyrdoms, and I see perfect theology in the Catholics--like uncondemnable--but they're in a position of power killing someone they have power over. It highlights the fact---as the same thing happened to Catholics in England in the 1600s--it's not Theology that saves you. It's charity, hope and faith. And I like that book because while it's a little persuaded to a wrong side--you can use postmodern interpretations to remove that thesis--you see pure Christian doctrine, and truly faithful people putting their lives on the line.

It's all about power. And right now, the power is in the Secular Authority, and it's like Rome again, where they're persecuting the WHOLE CHURCH. It's not people with good understanding of the Bible persecuting others with equal understanding, but people who have no idea what the Bible is, and are like Romans who called Christians Cannibals not understanding that wasn't what we were doing. Like people say priests engage in Catamism for God, but that's simply not true. They know it's a sin. It's written right in the New Testament.

Walter Summerford

Off to battle, he rode in World War I.
He led his calvary into war!
Then, was struck by lightning
Off his steed! He fell, paralyzed and dumb.

Six years later, as he fished,
He was beneath a sycamore tree,
Down fell the lightning bolt to lift the curse
His legs were now able to walk; set free!

Oh, God had blessed what He had cursed
And like Jonah in the belly of the whale,
The tree which He gave He also first
Lay to the silence of the gale

What God had given He had taken away.
So thus, he ambled on so happily
Walking free and true and good.
Yet, six years later, he was struck, could

It be that he was then paralyzed again?
Yes indeed it was, was it curse or freak
No one knows, but frightful of his life
He could no longer walk, and was meek.

Then he died, and laid to rest
His tombstone was struck again.
Was God a tyrant or was He just?
Yet, it proved He was once a man.

To philosophize upon this story
Lightning struck thrice, yet first
It hurt, and second relieved
Yet third it was a curse.

Why would God allow such things?
It is unknown to all Scholastic men.
It just shows God is truly real
So it were better to be His friend.

Yet it were for one more verse
I shall now tell you with this song:
Like Job, Walter had not cursed
But rather he suffered long.

The Day is Done

The wind blows so calmly;
The roses are in full bloom;
Invasions storm around thee,
Of weapons forecasting doom.

All for the air of silence
Of poetry and verse;
The great men and the giants
Have fallen to the curse.

For meaning has been lost
And tyrants' claim to fame
Is to scrape off all the moss
And make writers have no name.

For the ancient poesy is forbidden
And the serial of verse
Is given to the bidden
Of petty men rehearsed

Of a few stale phrases
And platitudes of mind.
The bold are off to battle
As the general crossed the Rhine.

And I realize now and forever
I have lost track of time.
But my poetry is my treasure
And is what kept me so alive.

My mind is filled with things
And the images of metaphor.
That is what made me happy
And what shook the world to its core.

To do a job I cannot, but I lend my skill to rhyme
Yet none will purchase my sorrows
For all want me working on the dime.
So I do not know.

Jerusalem

I know I shall be married to you in Zion
And that is my greatest hope;---
Yet no sensual thing shall betray:
I know not what our union will be.

A Midrash

Why do you worry about crucifixes, Christmas and pork, when you smoke Marijuana and hate your brethren, and curse with every fiber of your being? Do figs get gathered from thorn bushes, or grapes from thistles? Does not a prophet bear good fruit, and not bitter poisons of hatred, slander and hard heartedness? If righteousness could be offered by observing dead rites and rituals, why didn’t it deliver the Pharisees who were before you? No, they were condemned before Christ. If those rituals could save you, then neglect peace, love and forgiveness, why then I’d account it rubbish and worthless religion. Rather, Christ did away with the Old Testament, in place of a New, so men could worship freely through Charity and not wasted oblations.

At the Mall

At the mall, I'm sitting
And minding my own business.
A janitor comes up behind me.
He politely asks me if I can move...
My dad is buying my soda.
He then tells me, "God has a way of 
"Putting people in your life
"At the just the right moment.
"He provides for you what you need."
I politely get my Coke
And realizing I was rude
Come back, and try to give him a business card;
But I didn't have any on me,
And told him I was a writer.
He told me he was a writer, too,
Thinking at first I was begging for some money.
He wrote "Hell of the Black Dusk."
I search... the engines are hiding it;
Or he lied to me.
Either way, I am at an impasse.
As Sun Tsu said, if you must succeed
Hedge your army at an impasse
Or die.
I either die a writer
Or I live a writer.
I've spent too much time on this,
And can't bear the rejections from McDonald's and Subway anymore.
People have this habit of babbling to me religious platitudes
Not realizing I have a purpose.
This is it.
I knew it wasn't from God because it seemed mean
And seemed more like war than peace.
But, I entertained him all the more...
What's the chance of meeting a published janitor
At the Mall telling you you need to get a job
And God provides the right person at the right time?
I believe in miracles, just not when they
Bristle at the thought of someone buying their precious book
And then get belligerent with you for trying to ask him.

Two Poems from My Notebook

 On Keats' Ode to May Fragment

The mayflowers scent
The forest. My verse
Legendarium--left
To a little clan
As I die upon
the grass one glorious day
Passed down through
Twenty generations--
No, Ten Thousand!
Yet, my little life
Of mad verse was sore
A legacy meant nothing
To me... only the fire
Of truth and a crock
Of lamb stew, fed
By the price of this labor.
What's more, if paradise
Does not open its
Door for me, and I
Not let in,---what was
This labor for but a
Noble pursuit of God's
Face? And if it will
Not be a guide for
Those seeking the same,
I am equally perplexed.

The Good Walk

I did a good
Walk... discussions were
Wide, and large.
Jokes, globalization,
Then we discussed
The historicity of the Bible.
Went down the line.
Discussion was robust.
Walking, I saw a 
Home with a camera.
It whistled and took
My picture.
I don't pretend
To know politics.
But I know I
Don't want my picture
Taken, while walking
Down the street.
I smelled the
Peonies, my Mimi's favorite
Flower--my favorite Roses are Peonies
But smell just like the Rose of Sharon
There is no thorn, but I'll still call them roses--
White and voluptuous were these
Like a rose,
But dissimilar.

The Two Kings and the Saint

King David and Prince Cuchulain 
Lived in stern competition with one another.
Let me account now, of their kingdoms.

David's kingdom elevated the ease of life;
He sought no history, but rather wanted all
For present day. He thought to himself,
"Ancient times were so barbaric
"And men's hearts are not cruel.
"I have the heart of a man;
"I know my fellow well.
"They need no virtue but only wetness of fluids
"From kisses and congress. There is no god
"Thus, all there is in life is here.
"Let them have a good life
"Unbound by law."

Cuchulain was ancient, however 
Believed the strong must prosper
And the weak must die and said,
"Men must be strong, and manly.
"They must live by the ancient rites of olden times.
"They must nurture themselves to be strong
"And noble. And must fight.
"Learn to seize the prize, and spoil the enemy.
"And nobility is in how well we accustom ourselves
"To taking the prey, and doing the exploit.
"For suffering comes when the booty gets plundered
"By your enemy, and you must help your people.
"For only by being strong, and willing not to spare, can you have peace."

The two nobles hated one another
And so St. Patrick came by upon his steed.
He dismounted and sat between them,
Seeing them martial their armies.
From the East, Darius and Cyrus martialed
War toward the West, as these two
Kings were ready to fight one another.
St. Patrick knew no one was safe
For the war was grave coming...
Two kings divided
And two kings unified.

Yet, quickly as it came,
Cuchulain lifted up his array
And while David was preparing
Cuchulain won the people's heart
And they became savages.
They were beasts, every one of them.
And so when Cyrus and Darius
Arrived upon the shores of Ireland,
Great war erupted.

St. Patrick, however, loved the people very much
Seeing the great loss of dignity in the world
And worrying that all would be forgotten, said
"Know ye not the ancient customs?
"Love, peace and joy, and family?
"And God? Yes, there is a time for war
"And a time to uproot, but no man shall
"Have peace with his neighbor
"If all he is preoccupied with is sex
"Or all he is preoccupied with is war.
"Life is not about taking the spoil or prey.
"Life is about hearty friendship with the soil
"And the beauty and treasure of other souls."