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 ***
Lectionary Reading:
Hosea 1:2-10
CLASSIC POEM:
Fidelity
D.H. Lawrence
Man and woman are like the earth, that brings forth flowers
in summer, and love, but underneath is rock.
Older than flowers, older than ferns, older than foraminiferae,
older than plasm altogether is the soul underneath.
And when, throughout all the wild chaos of love
slowly a gem forms, in the ancient, once-more-molten rocks
of two human hearts, two ancient rocks,
a man’s heart and a woman’s,
that is the crystal of peace, the slow hard jewel of trust,
the sapphire of fidelity.
The gem of mutual peace emerging from the wild chaos of love.
*** This poem is in the public domain,
and may be read in a live-streamed worship service.
CONTEMPORARY POEM:
Gomer
Sara Kyoungah White
SNIPPET:
When morning breaks, beneath the sheets, the wound–
A dehiscence erupted, seeping blood;
A crimson pattern on the white, full-bloomed,
And where the pruned end should be, a bud.
…
[ READ THE FULL POEM ]