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:
Ruth 1:1-18
CLASSIC POEM:
Ruth and Naomi
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
Turn my daughters, full of wo,
Is my heart so sad and lone?
Leave me children — I would go
To my loved and distant home.
From my bosom death has torn
Husband, children, all my stay,
Left me not a single one,
For my life’s declining day
Want and wo surround my way,
Grief and famine where I tread;
In my native land they say
God is giving Jacob bread. “
Naomi ceased, her daughters wept,
Their yearning hearts were filled;
Falling upon her withered neck,
Their grief in tears distill’d.
Like rain upon a blighted tree,
The tears of Orpah fell
Kissing the pale and quivering lip,
She breathed her sad farewell.
But Ruth stood up, on her brow
There lay a heavenly calm;
And from her lips came, soft and low
Words like a holy charm.
I will not leave thee, on thy brow
Are lines of sorrow, age and care;
They form is bent, thy step is slow,
They bosom stricken, lone and sear.
Oh! when thy heart and home were glad,
I freely shared thy joyous lot;
And now that heart is lone and sad,
Cease to entreat — I’ll leave thee not.
Oh! if a lofty palace proud
Thy future home shall be;
Where sycophants around thee crowd,
I’ll share that home with thee.
And if on earth the humblest spot,
Thy future home shall prove;
I’ll bring into thy lonely lot
The wealth of woman’s love.
Go where thou wilt, my steps are there,
Our path in life is one;
Thou hast no lot I will not share,
‘Till life itself be done.
My country and my home for thee,
I freely, willingly resign,
Thy people shall my people be,
Thy God he shall be mine.
Then, mother dear, entreat me not
To turn from following thee;
My heart is nerved to share thy lot,
Whatever that may be. “
*** This poem is in the public domain,
and may be read in a live-streamed worship service.
CONTEMPORARY POEM:
The Awakening
Erika Dreifus
SNIPPET:
Yes, daughter, go, said Naomi,
and so off Ruth went, out from Bethlehem,
to the fields of barley,
the fields of Boaz.
All that long day Naomi waited,
weak with hunger
and worry.
…
[ READ THE FULL POEM ]
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