Each week we carefully curate a collection of poems that resonate with the lectionary readings for that week (Narrative Lectionary and Revised Common Lectionary).
*** Revised Common Lectionary ***
Lectionary Reading: Psalm 124
CLASSIC POEM:
For Deliverance From a Fever
Anne Bradstreet
When sorrows had begirt me round,
And pains within and out,
When in my flesh no part was found,
Then didst Thou rid me out.
My burning flesh in sweat did boil,
My aching head did break,
From side to side for ease I toil,
So faint I could not speak.
Beclouded was my soul with fear
Of Thy displeasure sore,
Nor could I read my evidence
Which oft I read before.
“Hide not Thy face from me!” I cried,
“From burnings keep my soul.
Thou know’st my heart, and hast me tried;
I on Thy mercies roll.”
“O heal my soul,” Thou know’st I said,
“Though flesh consume to nought,
What though in dust it shall be laid,
To glory t’ shall be brought.”
Thou heard’st, Thy rod Thou didst remove
And spared my body frail
Thou show’st to me Thy tender love,
My heart no more might quail.
O, praises to my mighty God,
Praise to my Lord, I say,
Who hath redeemed my soul from pit,
Praises to Him for aye.
*** This poem is in the public domain,
and may be read in a live-streamed worship service.
CONTEMPORARY POEM:
Changing Places in the Fire
Li-Young Lee
SNIPPET:
…
We see by the light of who we are.
Look at us: you inside me
inside you. We’ve lived inside
each other from the beginning.
And from before beginning.
Before the world was ever found.
Before the world was found, I say,
I dwelled inside you,
and you breathed all through me,
in my body and its happiness,
in my body and its loneliness.
After I found the world, I had to go
looking for you. Ever since the world,
I only lose you and find you.
Lose you. And find you.
The body of the beloved
is the lover’s true homeland, she says.
…
[ READ THE FULL POEM ]
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