ENOCH CHAPTER 100 ~ 108

WEEK 14 ENOCH 100

1. And in those days and in one place
The fathers together apace
With their sons shall be smitten and
Brothers one with another stand
To fall in death till the streams flow
With their blood. 2 For a man’s not slow
To set his hand to slaying sons
And his sons’ sons despite their guns,
And the sinner shall not withhold
His hand from his honoured and bold
Brother, from dawn till sunset they
Shall slay each other without stay.
3 Horses shall walk up to the breast
In the blood of sinners at rest,
And the chariot shall be submerged
To its height. 4 In those days converged
The angels shall descend into
The secret places and into
One place gather together all
Those who brought down sin on the ball
And the Most High then will arise
On that day of judgement in guise
To make great judgement among sinners.
5 And over all the righteous winners
And holy He will appoint such
Guardians from among holy clutch
Of angels to guard them as the
Apple of an eye, until He
Makes an end of all wickedness
And all sin, and though the righteous
Sleep a long sleep, they’ve naught to fear.
6 And then the children of the dear
Earth shall see the wise in safety,
And understand all this book’s words,
And know their riches are but turds
To save them from the overthrow
Of their sins. 7 And woe to you, woe,
Sinners, on the day of strong anguish,
You who afflict righteous to languish
And burn them with fire, you shall be
Requited for your works, you see.

Who once was ready to obey the state
And lead Jew and homo out to his fate
Will find himself ready upon the draw
To kill his own children and open maw
To devour grandson caught up in his claw.
There is no limit to the growing greed
Founded on fear and selling what we need
To banish fear by slaughtering the poor
Who are it seems a danger to the fewer.
The barrels filled with wealth turn into turds,
And gasoline is less than empty words,
And yet has power to raise a hand to strike.
Beloved, let me get there riding a bike
As You uproot my heart’s greed at the seed.

8 Woe to you, and you obstinate
Of heart, who watch to fabricate
Wickedness, therefore shall fear come
Upon you and there’ll be no bum
To help you. 9 Woe to you, you sinners,
Because of your words for beginners,
And for the actions of your hands
Which your godlessness in its bands
Has wrought, in blazing flames to burn
Worse than fire shall you burn as earn.
10 And now, know that from angels He
Will inquire as to your deeds be
In heaven, from the sun and the moon
And from the stars to witness soon
Of your sins because upon earth
You execute judgement upon
The righteous. 11 And He will summon
To testify against you each
The cloud and mist and dew to preach
And rain, for they shall all be stopped
Because of you that might have dropped
On you in blessing, and they shall
Be mindful of your prodigal
Sins. 12 And now give gifts to the rain
That it be not withheld from gain
Descending on you, nor yet dew,
When it’s received gold and a few
In silver from you to descend.
When the hoar-frost and snow to lend
Their chilliness, and all the snow
Storms with all their plagues fall and grow
Upon you, in those days you’ll not
Be able to stand in their plot.

I’ve heard the gentle preaching of the rain
Come of a sudden spattering and plain
And kicking up the dust in little puff
And sounding like the goats’ feet on the rough
Worn road along the village. I have heard
The brash storm and the thunder bring the word
Of pelting, swelting rains, and such I’ve seen
Efface in quicksilver the park and green.
I’ve felt the early preaching of the dew
That spoke angelic tones to one and few
That got up to meet early morning prayers
Of woodcock and of hedgehog by the stairs.
Beloved, I’ve heard and seen the sermon done
When there was nothing felt beneath the sun.

ENOCH 101

1 Observe the sky, children of heaven,
And every work of all the leaven
Of the Most High, and fear Him and
Do no evil there in His land.
2 If He should close the portals of
The sky withholding rain above,
And the dew’s descent on the earth
On your account for what it’s worth,
What will you do then? 3 And if He
Sends His anger on you freely
Because of your deeds, you cannot
Petition Him, for you were taught
To speak proud and insolent words
Against His righteousness in turds,
Therefore you shall have no peace here.
4 And do you not see sailors gear
In the ships, how their ships for fear
Are tossed about and by the waves,
And are shaken by the winds’ slaves,
And are in great trouble? 5 Therefore
They are afraid because their store
Of fine possessions on the sea
Is endangered there where it be,
And their hearts with evil forebodings
Fear the sea will swallow their loadings,
And they will perish in it too.
6 Are not the sea, waters in view,
And all its movements, the work of
The Most High, and has He above
Not set limits to its doings,
And confined it throughout by strings
Of sand? 7 And at His reproof it’s
Afraid and dries up from its fits,
And all its fish die, all in it,
But you sinners that are all fit
Upon the earth do not fear Him.
8 Has He not made the heaven’s rim
And the earth, and all that’s in them?
Who has given of wisdom’s gem
And understanding to all things
That move on earth and in sea’s flings?
9 Do not the sailors of the ships
Fear the sea? Yet sinner that slips
Does not fear words from Most High’s lips.

The revelator on Patmos espied
The sea corrupted as the blood to ride
Upon the billows where the fish reside,
And quoting Your word to Enoch he spoke
Of how the fish lay dead beneath the stroke.
The quotings of Your word from age to age
Resound upon the willows of my page,
And touch the waters of my well in spring
As my soul rises up and I take wing.
Beloved, the images of sand and shore
Reviled and soiled still bring to me the store
Of faith and hope creation came to fill.
I bend my sight toward the window sill
Where bird, not fish, returns to fit the bill.

Indeed, Beloved, the reason we go out
To slay the children of the world about
Is because they are sitting on the oil
And other wealth to get without much toil,
And to be rich we must kill children more
Than are sitting about in bin and store.
We are not evil in our hearts to kill,
We only kill when we see the gas bill.
The dew upon the grass is diamond built,
But when the sun comes up, it turns to silt.
It’s only hard things that remain a while
That make our wealth, though cutting through the guile,
Such stones reflect the beauty of a heart
That cannot take the right and poor man’s part.

ENOCH 102

1 In those days then when He has brought
A grievous fire upon your lot,
To where will you flee, and where will
You find deliverance from the pill?
And when He launches forth His Word
Against you will you not like bird
Be frightened and fear? 2 All the lights
Shall be affrighted at the sights,
And all the earth affrighted too
And tremble in alarm on cue.
3 And all the angels shall fulfil
Their commands and seek to find hill
To hide themselves from the presence
Of the great glory to commence,
And the children of earth shall come
To tremble and quake worrisome,
And you sinners shall become cursed
For ever, and what is the worst,
You shall have no peace. 4 Do not fear,
You souls of the righteous, but steer
You hopefully you for address
Who have died in your righteousness.
5 And grieve not if your soul’s descended
In grief into Sheol attended,
And in your life your body did
Not fare according to valid
Goodness on your part, but await
The day of judgement and the fate
Of sinners and the day of cursing
And its chastisement for conversing.

Beloved, I see and feel the blazing fire
That on Sinai has habit to inspire,
It licks about my body at the pyre
And destroys me before Your love’s desire.
Beloved, I hear and feel the crazing word
That thunders on Mount Sinai, and the stirred
Heart at the still small voice in echo’s lurid
Is unmade at the wing of that steel bird.
Beloved, my soul’s descent is grief and yet
The sprout even from Sheol that is met
At rosy dawn after the night work’s set
Fails not to raise a slight song from my lips
To show the soul undaunted at the hips
To find water of life sent down in sips.

6 And yet when you die sinners speak
Over you, “As we die, so bleak
Die the righteous, what benefit
Do they reap for their deeds of wit?
7 “Indeed, as we, so do they die
In grief and darkness under sky,
And what have they more than have we?
From this time on we equally
Share in the darkness. 8 “And what will
They receive of good and what will
They see for ever? Indeed, they
Too have died, and they from this day
For ever they shall see no light.”
9 I tell you, sinners, you are right
Content to eat and drink, and rob
And sin, and strip men naked cob,
And get you wealth and see good days.
10 But have you seen the righteous stays,
How their end falls out, that no manner
Of violence is found to hammer
In them till their death? 11 Yet they still
Have perished and become as nil,
And their spirits descended to
Sheol in tribulation’s view.

The best excuse is one that comes again
Repeated often among wicked men,
To rob and strip men naked is no crime
But needful in this world of place and time,
For without that oppression those who eat
Might find few kernels in their bowls of wheat.
The world is made of food and each his share
Takes where he can and if can where he dare.
Beloved Creator of all food and maw,
To eat is to employ created claw.
Condemn, Beloved, no violence at all,
For violence is what must fill the hall.
Beloved, Sheol is home to all the crew
Who turn at last once more in seeking You.

ENOCH 103

1 And now, therefore, I swear to you,
The righteous, by the glory due
To the Great, Honoured, Mighty One
By His greatness in dominion
I swear to you. 2 I know a thing
Of mystery, I’ve come to sing
The heavenly tablets, and have seen
The holy books, have found therein
Written in them and inscribed there
Regarding them, 3 That all the fair,
And goodness and joy and glory
Are prepared for them who are free,
And written for spirits of those
Who’ve died in righteous ways they chose,
And that many good things shall be
Given to you in recompense
For labours, your inheritance
Is great beyond the lot of those
Living. 4 And the spirits of you
Who’ve died in righteousness shall live,
Rejoice, and their spirits renew
And not perish, memory to give
Way before the face of the Great
One to all generations’ fate
Of the world, therefore do not be
Afraid of their claims any more.
5 Woe to you, sinners, wickedly
When you have died at end of score,
If you die in wealth of your sins,
And those who are like you in bins
Say of you, “Blessed are sinners, they
Have seen all their days. 6 And how they
Have died prosperously and in wealth,
And have not seen trouble and stealth
Or murder in their life, and they
Have died in honour, judgement’s sway
Has not been executed on
Them during their life from its dawn.”

Though I am still alive and with my breath
Recite in love Your holy name till death,
I wonder, my Beloved, if my name’s set
Among the righteous on the tablets met
Upon the heavenly shore, the tablets sung
By Enoch my grandfather by whose tongue
The sweet and bitter visions of all time
Were set forth in both meter and in rhyme.
If my name’s not in that reflection’s gold
Where You, Beloved, in awful traces told
Are seen in all the universe displayed
On nothingness, though all beauties portrayed,
Write on Your heart, Beloved, my name and soon
As I write on my heart Your name in tune.

7 Know that their souls then will be made
To go down into Sheol’s shade
And they shall be wretched in their
Great tribulation as their share.
8 And into darkness, chains and burning
Flame where there is grievous and spurning
Judgement shall your spirits go in,
And the great judgement upon sin
Shall be for all the generations
Of the world and to all the nations.
Woe to you, for you’ll have no peace.
9 Say not in regard to increase
Of the righteous and good who are
In life, “In our troubled days star
We have toiled laboriously and
Experienced every trouble planned,
And met with much evil and been
Consumed, and have become few seen
And our spirit small. 10 “And so we
Have been destroyed without any
Help even with a word, we’ve been
Tortured [and destroyed] on the green,
Without hope of life day to day.
11 “We hoped to be the head to sway
And have become the tail, we’ve toiled
In labour and in toil unspoiled
No satisfaction met our way,
And we’ve become the sinners’ prey
And of the unrighteous, and they
Have laid their yoke heavy on us.
12 “They’ve had dominion over us
That hated us and still smote us,
And to those hating us we’ve bowed
Our necks but they have not allowed
Us pity. 13 “We desired to get
Away from them that we might yet
Escape and be at rest, but found
No place to where we should flee sound
And safe. 14 “And we complained to those
Who are the rulers in our throes
Of tribulation, and cried out
Against those who devoured us stout,
But they did not attend our cries
And would not hearken to our sighs.
15 “And they helped those who robbed us and
Devoured us and who made our band
A few, and they concealed their work
Of oppression there where they lurk,
And they did not remove from us
The yoke of those devouring us
And dispersed us and murdered us,
And they concealed their murder, and
Minded not that had lifted hand
Against us in the holy land.

The spirits of all flesh return to You,
Though Sheol is the home of all and due,
And judgement is set down in fierce reprisal
In grief and flame for lives without revisal,
Yet all flesh must return one day to see
The judgement of Your face eternally.
Murder and its oppression hidden once
Is revealed to both wise and to the dunce,
And all’s set right before Your face at last
When the seven ages of the world are past
And the eighth week dawns with its silent chains.
Some wake to their reward in sumptuous pains
And others to the visions of their gains
In being bound up in Your heart and fast.

ENOCH 104

1 “I swear to you, that in the sky
The angels remember you by
Good before the glory of that
Great One, before the place He sat,
And your names are written before
The glory of the Great One’s score.

Muhammad in the holy Qur’an too
Swears by the sky just as Enoch in view
Raises the angels in remembrance’ crew
To grant reward for every human good
Found in Enoch’s report as well as should.
The good is before glory to the great
One who alone is sovereign in state.
Muhammad too in the holy Qur’an
Remembers that the names in golden span
Are written there before You to relate
That sky is witness to all human fate.
Beloved, if angels still remember me
Before the glory of Your face and sea,
Then I too make remembrance here of Thee.

2 “Be hopeful, for in former times
You were put to shame by their crimes,
Through ill and affliction, but now
You shall shine as the stars enow
Of heaven, you shall shine and you
Shall be seen, and the gates anew
Of heaven shall be opened you.
3 “And in your cry, cry for judgement,
And it shall appear where you went,
For all your tribulation shall
Be visited upon cabal
Of rulers, and on all who helped
Those who plundered you when you yelped.

Indeed, Beloved, I have been put to shame
More than any other found here to blame
In palaces of wealth where I lay claim
To live and prosper eating on the main,
While that elite hands out a paltry sum
To feed the hungry whose wealth now has come
To support the life-style of great and small
Who wander through the rock and rolling hall.
Indeed, Beloved, I’m put to shame by both
Participating in the reeling growth
Of the consumer life as by the mill
That says I don’t consume enough to fill.
Beloved, I flee to You from every wrong
That lies beneath the wings of my fast song.

4 “Be hopeful, and don’t cast away
Your hopes for you shall have a ray
Of great joy as the angels of
Heaven have joy in the above.
5 “What shall you be obliged to do?
You shall not have to hide in crew
On the day of great judgement and
You shall not be found in the land
As sinners, and the eternal
Judgement shall be far from your sal
For all of the world’s generations.
6 “And now do not take fear as rations,
You righteous, when you see the stations
Of sinners growing strong to be
Prosperous in their ways and free,
Be not their companions, but keep
Afar from their violent sweep,
For you’ll become companions of
The hosts of heaven for their love.

I have a hope, Beloved, I have a ray
That guides me to the coming Judgement day
As I whirl through Your Sabbath rest to find
The promises are written on both mind
And heart and voice as I lift Psalm of praise,
Petition, penance promising my ways
Of prayer in earth prostration might reveal
The ray that taught my footsteps, toes and heel.
Beloved, there are rays all around my path
Leading both to pleasure and wealth, or wrath,
And yet I cast aside the siren song
And shiver with my seeking of the long
Bright ray invisible to all but those
Who seek Your will alone above the rose.

7 “And, although you sinners may say
‘All our sins are hidden away
And shall not be searched out to be
Written down,’ nevertheless see
They’ll write down all your sins each day.
8 “And now I show you that light’s sway
And darkness, day and night’s array,
See all your sins. 9 “So do not be
Godless in your hearts, don’t agree
To lie and alter upright words,
Nor charging with lying the words
Of the Holy Great One, nor take
Account of idols, for the sake
Of your lying and godlessness
Do not result in righteousness
But in great sin. 10 “And now I know
This mystery, that sinners show
Will alter and pervert the words
Of righteousness in many herds,
And will speak wicked words, and lie,
And practice great deceits thereby,
And write books about their words’ yield.
11 “But when they write down the truth sealed,
Of all my words in all their tongues,
12 “And don’t change or diminish rungs
Or anything from my words but
Write them all down in truth to shut,
All that at first I testified
Concerning them, then I will hide
Not any other mystery,
That books will be given to the true
And righteous and the wise ones’ crew
To become a cause of joy and
Uprightness and wisdom in hand.
13 “And to them shall the books be given,
And they shall believe in them striven,
And rejoice over them, and then
Shall all the righteous among men
Who have learnt from them all the ways
Of uprightness shall have their praise.”

The seven books that make up four in two
I clasp in rapture to my heart anew
And cantillate the burning words again
That are the joy and judgement of all men.
Beloved, the books that ignite my aspiring
Draw me each day into Your words untiring
To bless my tongue with honey and with pearls
As I swing from branches and land on burls
Of polished and of rough bark where I pass
From sky to earth, from violet to grass.
Beloved, I find the heavenly books remain
Embossed upon the stones and not in vain,
Your footprints in black letters or in moss
Or leaf-mould are as clear to me as gloss.

ENOCH 105

1 In those days YHWH bade them to summon
And testify to earth’s folk coming
About their wisdom, show to them,
For you are their guides to condemn,
And a reward on all the earth.
2 For I and My son in its girth
Will be united with them then
For ever in the paths of men
Upright in their lives, and Islam
Will be your heritage and calm,
Rejoice, you children of all men
Of uprightness. Amen, amen.

Of guides to humankind Enoch is first
And living still to make the unaccurst
Path plain to feet of humble ones who see
The gleams of light wherever he goes free.
The hidden spark occulted from all time
Flashes upon my eye in hope and rhyme
Until I find my feet climb up the stair
Before Your throne divine, and Enoch there
Recites again for my ears tuned to truth
The words of life eternal, fount of youth,
That with each sip invigorate the soul
That in Your name has found both life and goal.
Beloved, I follow Enoch’s cryptic road
And lay aside earth’s strife and greedy load.

FRAGMENT OF THE BOOK OF NOAH

ENOCH 106

1 And after some time then my son
Methuselah took a wife won
For his son Lemech, and she was
Pregnant by him as often does,
And gave birth also to a son.
2 And his body was white as snow
And red as blooming rose to glow,
And the hair of his head and locks
Were white as wool, and long as stocks,
And his eyes beautiful. And when
He opened up his eyes again,
He lighted up the whole house like
The sun, the whole house at the strike
Was very bright. 3 And thereupon
He arose in the hands outdrawn
Of the midwife, opened his mouth,
And conversed with YHWH from the south
Of righteousness. 4 And Lemech was
His father, and for what he does
He was afraid of him and fled,
And came to his father as led
To Methuselah. 5 And he said
To him, “I’ve begotten a son,
Both strange and diverse from the ton
Of men, one like the sons of God
In heaven, with nature on the sod
Different, and he is not like us,
His eyes are as the plenteous
Rays of the sun, and glorious
Is his face. 6 “And it seems to me
That he is not sprung from my tree
But from the angels, and I fear
That in his days a wonder sere
May be wrought on the earth with tear.

The whiteness is like one of sons of God?
Does he mean those who sinned upon the sod
To bring about the wicked race of fear?
If so, it is a curse to be so queer
As pale in pigment, both in face and hand.
A better thing would be darkness of land
As were the other prophets in the place
Where Adam, Enoch, Lemech showed their face.
Beloved, the man was worried that the cast
Proved something was amiss in his own past
To suggest I presume adultery
Was hidden in the prophet’s family tree.
Colour is proof of nothing man can see,
And is a non sequeter known at last.

If Noah opened his mouth to speak well
The oracles of righteousness a spell
Soon after he appeared out from the womb,
He was the first to engage in such doom.
As such he because sign of him to come
Who spoke as sent Messiah and not dumb
As a babe in the cradle. Enoch’s sum
Is source of the Qur’an if truth to tell.
That light of fire and faith against all hell
Reminds all of the prophets who spoke by
The miracles that You write in the sky.
Beloved, I hear prophetic word that takes
Flight from the lips of babes and sucklings’ wakes,
And tighten with their promise my tent stakes.

7 “And now, my father, I am here
To petition you and implore
You that You may go in before
Enoch, our father, and learn from
Him the truth, for his dwelling’s come
Among the angels.” 8 And when he,
Methuselah heard his son’s plea,
He came to me to where I was
At the ends of the earth, because
He’d heard that I was there, and he
Cried aloud, and I heard his plea
And I came to him. And I said
To him, “Indeed, here am I led,
My son, why have You come to me?”

The fact is it is possible to go
Into the presence of Enoch and show
Him the poor heart and bask within the glow
Of the bright worlds where Enoch stands in state.
I too seek out the path before the great
And enter in the hopeful halls and straight
To find a better council than the kind
I find among the temples of the blind.
Beloved, I pierce the bitterness and rind
And strike the seeded core and taste the sweet
Until my heart is full beyond retreat.
There is no place of solace and no seat
Outside the guidance of the divine proof.
And so I seek out Enoch though aloof.

9 And he answered and said “Because
Of a mighty anxiety
I’ve come to you, and because of
A disturbing vision above
I have approached. 10 “And now, my father,
Hear me, to Lemech my son rather
There has been born a son, the like
Of whom there is no other spike,
And his nature is not like man’s
Nature, and the colour that spans
His body is whiter than snow
And redder than a rose to grow,
And the hair of his head is white
More than white wool, and his eyes bright
Like the rays of the sun, and he
Opened his eyes and there freely
He lighted up the whole house, see.

Enoch says Noah was albino and
A shining light upon an anxious land.
The whiteness of his hair is like that seen
In visions of Yourself upon the screen
Of nothingness that humans must perceive
Before the eye Reality’s reprieve.
Despite my multifarious descent
I too am pale as though living in tent
Without the sun to scorch my scruffy skin.
Being white is, I think, no mortal sin.
How strange we human’s always take to task
The pigment of the skin in all we ask,
The least important thing about ourselves
That distinguishes us from raving elves.

11 “And he arose up in the hand
Of the midwife, and by command
Opened his mouth and blessed the Lord
Of heaven, YHWH the One adored.
12 “And his father Lemech became
Afraid and fled to me for shame,
And did not believe he was sprung
From him, but from another rung
Of heavenly angels, and indeed
I have come to you in my need
So that you may make known to me
The truth.” 13 And I, Enoch, freely
Answered and said to him, ‘The Lord
Will do a new thing on the sward,
And this I have already seen
In a vision, and made the bean
Known to you that in the days of
Father Jared come from above,
The angels of heaven transgressed word
Of YHWH. 14 And indeed they were stirred
To commit sin, transgress the law,
And have united foot and paw
With women and committed sin
With them, and have married some in
Their haste, and have produced offspring
By them without a song to sing.
15 And after they shall produce on
The earth giants not by the drawn
Plan of the spirit, but by flesh,
And there shall be a great and fresh
Punishment on the earth, and earth
Shall be cleansed from all impure dearth.

Not only in the flesh have angels brought
Wicked amalgamations and unsought
Upon the earth, but in the mind as well
The tortuous convolutions of hell
Sprint out across the page and vision’s screen
To spoil the earth of lovely and pristine.
The body is not all there is to spoil,
There’s also mind and heart, the soul at toil,
And water alone cannot cleanse from these
Which come invisibly as noxious breeze.
Beloved, I flee to You from angel power
And find Your sovereignty in freedom’s hour
To touch the shining sun on frozen birch
Enough for me of market, court and church.

16 Yea, there shall come a great destruction
Over the whole earth, and a suction
Of a deluge and great destruction
For one year. 17 And this son who’s been
Born to you shall be left on scene,
And his three children shall be saved
With him from the judgement engraved,
When all mankind that are on earth
Shall die. 18 And now make known the worth
To your son Lemech that he who
Has been born is in truth his son,
And call his name Noah, please do,
For he shall be left to you won,
And he and his sons shall be saved
From the destruction as engraved,
Which shall arise upon the earth
Because of all the sin in worth
And all the unrighteousness, which
Shall be consummated in pitch
Upon the earth within his days.
19 And after that there shall be ways
Of more unrighteousness than that
Which was first consummated at
The earth, for I know mysteries
Of the holy ones, for who sees,
He, YHWH, has shown me and informed
Me, and I’ve read them where unstormed
They’re written on the heavenly plates,
The tablets resting in their states.

If Enoch’s read the silver plates above
In heaven and lived to tell me of his love,
He’s read, I trow, the holy Qur’an too
That is supposed to be there in plain view.
He’s read the Torah and with sinking heart
The histories of judges and the part
They played in saving from idolatries.
He’s read of kings too wicked in the breeze
To listen to good prophets and their word.
He read the fate of men and women stirred
And trembling on the choice and falling flat.
He’s read and seen me also where I sat.
Beloved, though all things are written and fair,
I still choose freely to grasp You from air.

ENOCH 107

1 And I saw written on them that
Generation upon a fat
Generation shall transgress, till
A nation of righteousness still
Will come, and transgression at last
Is destroyed and all sin is passed
Away from the earth, and all kinds
Of good come upon it as finds.
2 And now, my son, go and make known
To your son Lemech from the throne
That this son of his, which is born,
Is in truth his son, not forsworn,
And that this is no lie forlorn.’

The prophecy of all that should be seen
In all the world was known at Enoch’s spleen
And shown to Lemech for his son in proof
Of what to carry out and not to goof.
The fate of all things is written and fair
Upon the page of Enoch’s writing there
Until destruction cleanses all the earth
With flood and ice or then with fire and dearth.
Beloved, destroy transgression from the plot
Of my heart’s earning in the things I’ve sought
From dibble stick and trowel stuck in the soil
With all my slight and feeble days of toil.
Remember, my Beloved, the nation still
That obeys You not going out to kill.

3 And when Methuselah had heard
What his father Enoch in word
Said, for he’d shown to him all things
In secret, he returned by wings
And showed them to him and he named
The name of that son Noah famed,
For he will comfort all the world
After the destruction’s unfurled.

Noah’s a comfort, indeed, that’s his name,
Although destroying flood has made his fame.
I too take comfort in the prince of seers
That constantly while preaching scans and peers
The sky for clouds. It minds me of my father
Who could look up with but the slightest bother
Predicting when the rain would come to spoil
The fruit of morning’s or afternoon’s toil.
I who work at no art in brick and lime
Cannot distinguish waverings of clime,
But am content to live beneath the pour
Of sun or rain, if need be rush the door.
So I take comfort from both flood and drouth
And turn me whirling to both north and south.

ENOCH 108

1 Another book which Enoch wrote
For his son Methuselah’s vote
And for those who’ll come after him,
And keep the law until the rim
Of the last days. 2 You who have done
Good shall wait for those days in sun
Till an end is made of those who
Work evil, and an end in view
Of the might of transgressors’ crew.

How Daniel quotes these words of blessing on
Those who wait to the end of days for dawn,
And hope in the last judgement and the fire
That burns the evil from each man’s desire
And kindles love of only You to know
That You alone are truly on the row.
All other things illusive in the street
Of cosmic wonder, and before the fleet
Of stars and ships that ply them with the trade
Of substance and the spangles they are made.
Beloved, like Enoch and like Daniel I
Return to You again, and again spy
The end of all things and reality
That twinkles brightly on eternity.

3 And wait you indeed till sin’s passed
Away, for their names shall at last
Be blotted out of book of life
And out of the holy books rife,
And their seed be destroyed for aye,
And their spirits be slain thereby,
And they shall cry and make lament
In a chaotic desert tent,
And in the fire shall they all burn,
For there’s no earth there to discern.

The book of life is known to Enoch first,
And Moses in the Torah was not cursed
When he required that You blot out his name
If You could not correct the people’s shame.
To Daniel and Apocalypse be true
That the book is opened to every view,
And yet the seed and spirits on the dew
Remain untouched unless the book is lent
To bidding of Your hand wherever sent.
The desert rises in the torrid air
And even earth is lost in what is bare,
Destroyed are all things that are not writ there
But from the memory that none can share.
Beloved, I sigh and cry for all things meant.

4 And I saw something there like cloud
Invisible, for by its shroud
I could not look over, and I
Saw a flame of fire blazing high,
And things like shining mountains round
Sweeping to and fro on the ground.

My visions of the mountains and their sweep
Are clouded and recleared beyond the keep
Of days and nights, and yet my soul must wait
The coming of the whispers on the gate.
The flames are still seen grazing on the earth
Consuming everything of less than worth
Until the vision darkens from the past
And rests upon the things only that last.
Beloved, my waiting for the grey and dawn
Is helped by chirp of twitter that is drawn
Beside the window of my cottage low
Where angels and other friends’ feathers slow
To flutter at the sill, perhaps to find
A bath in the rain barrel by the blind.

5 I asked one of the holy ones,
Of angels who was with my runs,
And said to him, “What is this thing
Shining? For it’s not heaven but wing
Only of flame and blazing fire,
And the voice of weeping and dire
Crying and lamentation and
Strong pain.” 6 And he said close at hand,
“This place which You see, here are cast
The spirits of sinners that blast
And blasphemers, of those who do
Wickedness, and those also who
Pervert all of the things that YHWH
Has spoken through the mouth of prophet,
Even the things that they shall scoff at.

I too, Beloved, address a quiet word
To angel at my window or a bird,
But not when son of man can hear me stirred
For fear that I shall be deprived of freedom
By human laws and by those who decreed them.
Who speak to any but the human lot
Are considered right ready for the rot
Of mental institution, though I know
The ones with power to install people so
Are those whose minds are darkest in the row.
So let me speak to angels on the mend
Like Enoch in the verses he so penned,
But without being overheard or spent
By human ears because of where they went.

7 “For some of them are written and
Inscribed in the celestial land,
In order that the angels may
Read them and know what on a day
Shall happen to the sinners’ fray,
And the spirits of humble ones,
And of those who have in their tonnes
Afflicted their bodies, and been
Recompensed by Ælohim’s win,
And of those who’ve been put to shame
By wicked men, who love the name
Of Ælohim and loved not gold
Nor silver nor anything sold
Upon the earth, 8 “but gave themselves
Up to be tortured on the shelves,
Who, since they came to be, did not
Long after earthly food, but sought
All things as a mere passing breath,
And lived accordingly till death,
9 “And YHWH tried them much, and their souls
Were found pure so that in their goals
They should for ever bless His name.
10 “And all the blessings on them came
As I’ve recounted in the books.
And he’s assigned to them their looks
Of recompense, because they’re found
To be such as loved heaven’s ground
More than worldly life safe and sound,
And though they were trodden by foot
Of wicked men, and felt the root
Of their abuse and were reviled
And put to shame, and yet they smiled
And blessed Me. 11 “And now I will call
The spirits of the good who fall
To generation of the light,
And I will transform those in sight
Who were born in darkness, and who
In the flesh received not their due
With such honour as faithfulness
On their part deserved to address.

Beloved, I too was born in darkness met
As near midnight as I could ever get,
And so I pray that when You transform sight
Of day and darkness from the fading night,
That you will give my flesh and spirit room
Before the glowing day of spark and doom.
The generation of light on my path
Set out in darkness makes a glowing swathe
Across the message of my fate and hour.
I stand beneath Your love, mercy and power
To find the catnip blooming in the fall
Much later than I’d hoped for its recall.
Forgive me I neglected to take slip
Of it to make a tea drink I could sip.

12 “And I’ll bring forth in shining light
Those who have loved My holy right
Name, and I will seat each upon
The throne of his honour withdrawn.
13 “And they shall be shining for times
Without number and in all climes,
For righteousness is the judgement
Of Ælohim, for He has sent
To the faithful His faithfulness
In the upright dwellings’ address.
14 “And they shall see those who were born
In darkness led dark and forlorn,
While the righteous shall shine in praise.
15 “And the sinners shall cry in daze
And see them shining, and they will
Go where days and seasons fulfil.”

I have loved Your name, truly, if the word
That’s on my tongue is more than just a bird
Of omen and a flash in flight away.
I cannot say if I’ve received a ray
Of what’s my due in mercy and in fame.
But I’ve at least borne love upon Your name.
Beloved, my precious, darling One who stands
When everything turns on the shifting sands,
I wait through troubled times no more reward
Than seeing the hoarfrost upon the sward,
Upon the willows dressed as brides in gowns
And on the firs lined up to march to towns.
Beloved, Beloved, I’ve loved Your name as long
As Enoch has spoken it clear and strong.


AUTHOR: THOMAS G. MCELWAIN

Copyright © 2007 Adams & McElwain Publishers and Thomas McElwain First Published in two volumes, The Beloved and I 2005, and Led of the Beloved, 2006. Second Edition, 2010 Third and revised edition, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this verse commentary on the sacred Scriptures may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from publisher.

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