With the dawn of a new church year, we have launched a new feature on our website, a weekly post of poetry that resonates with the lectionary readings for that week (Revised Common Lectionary).
*** Narrative Lectionary ***
Lectionary Reading:
Isaiah 6:1-8
CLASSIC POEM:
The Seraph and the Poet
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
THE seraph sings before the manifest
God-One, and in the burning of the Seven,
And with the full life of consummate
Heaving beneath him like a mother’s
Warm with her first-born’s slumber in that
The poet sings upon the earth grave-riven,
Before the naughty world, soon self-forgiven
For wronging him,–and in the darkness prest
From his own soul by worldly weights.
Even so,
Sing, seraph with the glory ! heaven is high;
Sing, poet with the sorrow ! earth is low:
The universe’s inward voices cry
‘ Amen ‘ to either song of joy and woe:
Sing, seraph,–poet,–sing on equally !
*** This poem is in the public domain,
and may be read in a live-streamed worship service.
CONTEMPORARY POEM:
Seraphim
Patricia Spears Jones
SNIPPET:
…
Thus, this seraphim held melancholy
Gentle as a lull in a long conversation
But heaven allows only jubilance.
Possibly the angel needed to return
…
[ READ THE FULL POEM ]
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