Poems

The next word that I would unto thee say,
Is how thou mayst attain without delay,

Those blessed graces, and that holiness
Thou dost with so much godly zeal express

Thy love to, and thy longing to enjoy,
That sins and weakness might thee less annoy.

Know, then, as I have hinted heretofore,
And shall now speak unto a little more,

All graces in the person of the Son
Are by the Father hid, and therefore none

Can them obtain but they who with him close;
All others graceless are but only those;

For of his fullness 'tis that we receive,
And grace for grace; let no man then deceive

Himself or others with a feigned show
Of holiness, if Jesus they eschew.

When he ascended to his Father, then
It was that he received gifts for men;

Faith, hope, and love, true zeal, an upright heart,
Right humbleness of mind, and every part


...

Some time when the river is ice ask me
mistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help
or to hurt: ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.

I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look

...

It took a week for us to stop hearing the voices.
Although they had been our constant companions
for years by then, a steady stream of chatter,
it reached the point where they became unbearable.
Each message had become a death to us. Just a little
to start with, soft like the twitter of birds,
not too intrusive perhaps, but then more insistent
by the day, slowly overwhelming, until
our own voices, thoughts, were lost to theirs.


...