To Make One Wise

How long that couple dwelt in Paradise

Before the serpent tempted Eve to sin

Cannot be known, yet surely, in their eyes

That Tree of Knowledge sought their hearts to win.

The Good they knew so well: the will of God…

But Evil, Death nor Sin was known at all;

No Grave, no Tears, no need of chastening rod

Had yet marked out the dangers of a Fall.

There stood the cursing Tree with fruit so fair

That sparkled in the bright primordial Sun;

And Eve and Adam must have wondered where

The path might lead some disobedient one…

Oh Man! Oh Woman! Could you not have seen

The Test that faced you in that fateful Tree?

Could you not build some wall, some fence, some screen

To hide the thing from sight away from Thee?

You had no axe, no saw, to cut it down,

No flame of fire to burn it to its root,

So, daily gathering food you passed it round,

Perhaps admiring its alluring fruit…

Was neither of you wise enough to guess

The beauty of that Tree might be a snare

To keep your naked feet from righteousness

Or slither near to catch you unaware?

For on that fateful day, a wily snake

Proposed to you the charming, reasoning Lie

That you from naive slumbers could awake

And gain the wisdom God would dare deny…

That Good and Evil are Yours to define

And You, God’s children, could cheat your demise

By quoting Satan: “All of His, be MINE!”

By eating fruit desired to make one WISE.

MNA

10/14/2022

Precious

What has captured my heart,

carried afar my desires,

carved a cavern deep inside

where every stray thought can hide?

Have I been honest with me--

vested my hopes, tested my habits,

posted hazard signs along

my way to an imminent heaven?

How will Life reward me,

my realizations refusing to rust

and wear out ere Life recedes…

leaving tidal ripples in the sand?

Is it an isolated island I’m treading,

tip-of-an-iceberg paradise

off of which an ignorant step

might immerse me in rich immensity?

Shall I treasure a status quo

with nary a shilling to save a soul,

while sacrificial lambs succumb

on the stony cliffs of the siren?

Tell me, teach me to tally

the cost of the time-denying self

that teeters on the terrifying brink

without the Treasure that is Christ.

MNA

1.24.16

Beauty's Renewal

I woke to find a world devoid of war
where no one bears a grudge or locks his door
or fears to wander naked in the wild
or trust an unknown neighbor with his child:
a world where threat and peril walk no more.

I opened eyes to gaze upon a garden
where none still knows the need to plead for pardon
or beg for alms or seek a healing balm
or find a sage her tortured mind to calm:
a place of grace and peace beyond the Jordan.

I rose to walk in wonder down the strand
now free from heaven’s curse on life or land
where oceans churn with only gentle tides
and nature with its lords no more collides:
a paradise unstained on every hand.

I left my dreams behind to enter bliss
where death and wrong my Prince will all dismiss
and offer there with riven hands and feet
the prize which here is only bittersweet:
the sleeping Beauty’s pledged, awakening Kiss.


MNA 4.26.2015