JUBILEES CHAPTER 5 ~ 8

WEEK 17 JUBILEES 5

1 It happened when children of men
Began to multiply again
Upon the surface of the earth
And daughters came when they gave birth,
That the angels of Ælohim
Saw them on a certain year’s dream
Of this jubilee, that they were
Beautiful to look at and spur,
And so they took for themselves wives
Of all whom they chose for their lives,
And they bore to them sons and they
Were giants. 2 And lawlessness’ way
Increased on the earth and all flesh
Corrupted its way, in its mesh
Were men and cattle, beasts and birds
And everything moving in herds
On earth, they all corrupted ways
And their orders, and in their days
They began to devour each other,
And lawlessness against one’s brother
Increased on the earth and each thought
Of men’s imagination taught
Evil continually in plot.

The Watchers’ treachery leads to many things:
The lawlessness of peasants and of kings,
Corruption of all flesh, both bird and beast,
And humankind as well as not the least,
The cannibalism of upright men,
At least those in power in village and den,
And every thought imagined wicked still.
One might have wondered who would foot the bill.
Some wonder in this day and page as well
Who’ll pay the price of the consuming spell.
Beloved, as changes make their awkward way
Across the sky of the same clouds at play,
I break the chain of violence reciting
Your names in lofty Scripture and the biting.

3 And Ælohim looked on the earth,
And lo it was corrupt in worth,
And all flesh had corrupted its
Orders, and everything that sits
Upon the earth had done all kinds
Of wickedness before His blinds.
4 And He said that He would destroy
Man and all flesh that He’d employ
Upon the surface of the earth
Which He’d created in its girth.
5 But Noah found grace in the eyes
Of YHWH. 6 And with the angel spies
Whom He had sent upon the earth,
He was very angry, and gave
Command to root out the enclave
Of them from all of their dominion,
And He told us as His opinion
To bind them all in the earth’s deep,
And indeed they are bound to keep
In the depths and are separate.
7 And against their sons there went great
Command from Him that they be struck
With the sword, be removed from luck
Under heaven. 8 And He said “My
Spirit, it shall not always try
To remain on man, for they too
Are flesh and their days shall be few,
Just one hundred and twenty years.”
9 And He sent His sword on their ears
That each should kill each other, and
They began to kill through the land
Till they all fell by the sword’s berth
And were destroyed from off the earth.

Your spirit, my Beloved, upon the human race
Is what keeps peace when peace is in this place.
When Your great spirit fails to ride upon
The human mind, the outcome is foregone.
The violence of power to do comes out
When humans are not guided, without doubt.
Then guide me in this place of men and fears,
Throughout the valley of both death and tears,
To keep my mind stayed with Your spirit now
And on all days of life in sword and plough.
Let me not touch with violence the one
That You have blessed, nor plant beneath the sun
Where others have the right. Beloved, I crave
The guidance of Your spirit to the grave.

10 And their fathers were witnesses
Of their destruction, after this
They were bound in the depths of earth
Forever, until the day’s birth
Of the great condemnation, when
Judgment is accorded all men,
And those who’ve corrupted their ways
And their works before the Lord’s praise.
11 And He destroyed them from their places,
And there were not left any faces
Unjudged for all their wickedness.
12 But Lord God did not cease to bless,
And He made for His works a new
And righteous nature, so the crew
Should not sin in their whole nature
Forever, but should be all pure
And righteous each in his kind’s way
Always. 13 And the judgment of all
Is ordained and written on wall
Of the celestial tablets and
In righteousness, even the hand
Of judgement of all who depart
From the path which is ordained part
For them to walk in, and if they
Do not walk in it, judgment sway
Is written down for every creature
And every kind, and every preacher.

Though every life is written in detail
With the command of tablets on the grail,
A man is still free to cut off his sail
And go his own way in rebellious state.
He can accept wicked, illusion’s fate.
Eternal script is not a chain and ball,
But the sweet bidding to the safer stall.
Who choose the rampant desert fail to see
The stall open out in its liberty
And hover on the track of stars and glow
Of heavenly ecstasies though here below.
Beloved, I beg to follow in the path
Plotted from Your eternity, not wrath.

14 And there is naught in heaven or earth,
Or in light or in darkness’ berth,
Or in Sheol or in the deep,
Or in the place of darkness’ keep
Which is not judged, all their judgments
Are ordained and written with sense
And engraved. 15 In regard to all
He will judge, the great by the call
Of his greatness, and then the small
According to his smallness, each
According to his way and reach.

Beloved, I joy to think Your judgement of
Myself is small indeed, and in Your love,
Although the great You judge according to
The greatness of the things they hope to do.
I have just small things in my care, a house
Of timbers old and buried like a mouse
Beside the bosky hill, beside the spring
That lends its fresh waters to everything
I eat and drink, and also washes clothes
I change to clean when Sabbath days transpose.
My hours are made of tiny things, the dry
Garlic cloves hanging near the woodfire’s keep,
Harvest of nettles, milkweed, compost heap,
And on the floor of loft a place to sleep.

16 And He is not one who’ll regard
The person of any, nor shard,
Nor is He one who will receive
Gifts, if He says that He’ll reprieve
Or execute judgment on each,
If one gave everything in reach
On the earth, He would not regard
The gifts or the person or pard,
Nor accept anything from hand,
For He’s righteous judge on the land.
17 [And of Israel’s folk it’s been written
And ordained, if they turn unsmitten
To Him in righteousness He will
Forgive them their transgressions’ bill
And pardon all their wickedness.
18 It is written, ordained to bless
That He will show mercy’s address
To all who turn from all their guilt
Once each year.] 19 And as for those spilt
Corrupting their ways and their thoughts
Before the flood, then no man’s lots
Were accepted save those of Noah
Alone out of that greater shoah,
For his person was accepted
In behalf of what his sons did,
Whom Ælohim saved from the flood
Waters on his account and blood,
For his heart was righteous in all
His ways, according to his call,
And he had not departed from
Anything ordained and to come.

Noah was perfect and just long before
He brought You sacrifice before the door.
He was accepted, though perhaps a boor,
Always harping on what You have in store
As law for the clean and unclean in meat.
Noah was perfect and walked by Your feet.
Noah did not bring sacrifice as meet
Until the flood was done, because He knew
That none was accepted because of crew
Or fame or claim to name or residue
Of hope that You might be for sale. The true
Come with hands empty and the heart bowed low
To give to You alone the weight of show.
And so there’s no gift I can bring to You.

20 And YHWH said that He would destroy
All things that on the earth enjoy,
Both men and cattle, and the beast,
And fowl of the air, and increased
Whatever moves upon the earth.
21 And He commanded Noah berth
In an ark he should make himself,
That he might save himself on shelf
From the great waters of the flood.

Salvation is a grace indeed because
It is a thing made by a man’s own paws.
Noah would have died in the flood if he
Had thought it was enough to sit by tree
Saved by Your grace, or even tremblingly
Obedient to the Decalogue’s command.
Neither sitting nor doing out of hand
Brings salvation, but rather logically
To take shelter before the gale and sea.
Who said to Noah I shall not come in
Since at home I keep Sabbath without sin,
And so I’m safe. The water washed away
All the excuses in the light of day.
I enter ark made with hands, there I stay.

22 And Noah made the ark with thud
Just as He commanded him, in
The twenty-seventh jubilee
Of years, in the fifth week and in
The fifth year on [first day’s decree]
Of the first month, the week’s fourth day. [1307 A.M.]
23 And he entered in the sixth year
Of that week in the ark to stay, [1308 A.M.]
In the second month without fear,
On the [first day, which is week’s sixth]
Of the second month, till sixteenth
[Sabbath], he entered the sixteenth,
And all that We brought to him there,
Into the ark, and YHWH was fair
To close it from without upon
The seventeenth evening from dawn
[Evening preceding the first day
Of the week]. 24 And YHWH opened stay
Of the seven flood-gates of the sky,
And the mouths of the fountains nigh
Of the great deep, seven springs in all.

A Saturday night You closed up the ark
So no one else could come into the park.
Until the second Sabbath of that second
Month the open door to all sinners beckoned
As well as to the righteous on the earth.
But on the Sunday when the crowds of worth
Came to the church door, it was barred and locked.
So You showed them what it was to be mocked,
And portrayed how that day was but a dearth
Of mercy for the disobedient crowd
Who fought each other and pounded aloud
Upon the ark’s door that they might come in.
Noah or I might give in to the din.
But You lock mercy’s door against their sin.

25 From the flood-gates began to fall
Down water from heaven forty days
And forty nights [until it stays
On the third month, day twenty-six,
The fifth day of the week to fix],
And the fountains of the deep too
Sent up waters, waters to spew
Until the whole world was full up
Of water from the wrathly cup.

The judgement on those who wait Sunday’s dawn
To come to You for mercy just goes on
In awful retribution on the land
For forty days and nights by Your command.
No wonder Constantinople and Rome
Reject the Book of Jubilees for dome
And steeple of sun worship in their trek
Away from justice to tread on the deck
Of wave-washed ark and so to lose their neck.
The Book of Jubilees condemns their fall
From grace and Your commandments and the pall
That’s found in setting off the yoke and plough
Of Your appointed. Axum’s church alone
Preserves the book, not having hearts of stone.

26 And the waters increased upon
The earth: fifteen cubits were drawn
In waters risen above all
The highest mountains like a wall,
And the ark was lifted above
The earth, and it moved on in love
On the face of the waters’ shove.
27 And the water prevailed upon
The surface of the earth as drawn
For five months, one hundred and fifty
Days. 28 And the ark went out and nifty
Rested on the top of Lubar,
One of Ararat’s mountains, star.
29 And on the [first day] fourth day of
The week in the fourth month above
The fountains of the great deep closed,
And the flood-gates of heaven exposed
Restrained, and on the [first day] which
Was fourth day of the week in pitch
Of the seventh month all the springs
Of the abysses opened wings
Deep in the earth, the water started
To descend in the deep departed.
30 And on the [first day] the fourth day
Of the week of the tenth month’s way
The tops of the mountains were seen,
And on the [first day] the fourth day
Of the week of the first month’s way
The earth’s from where it had been seen.
31 And the waters disappeared from
Above the earth back where they’d come,
In the fifth week in seventh year [1309 A.M.],
And on the seventeenth day to steer
In the second month the first day
Of the week and the earth astray
Was dry. 32 And on day twenty-seven
Fourth day of the week writ in heaven,
He opened the ark, and sent out
Of it beasts, cattle, without doubt
The birds, and every moving stout.

I often think to take refuge in You,
Beloved, from strife and every evil view,
But rarely think about the day and true
When the ark door is opened, I leave pew
To find a world caressed by Judgement’s grace,
A pure and clean and wholesome kind of place.
Beloved, I fly out with the rook and wren
And wander with the squirrel and fox and then
Dance on the granite boulders tumbled down
Beneath the hill I live by with a frown.
My Wednesday opens up to see the sky
Of stars at last unfolded to my eye,
And I stop all my dancing and my song
To wait on You, Beloved, wait on You long.

JUBILEES 6

1 And on the [first day] the first day
Of the week of the third month’s sway
He went out of the ark, and built
An altar on that mountain’s silt.
2 And he made atonement for earth,
And took a kid for what it’s worth
And made atonement by its blood
For all the guilt before earth’s flood,
For everything that had been there
Had been destroyed, the earth was bare,
Except those that were in the ark
With Noah. 3 And he placed the stark
Fat of it on the altar, and
He took an ox, and goat in hand,
A sheep and kids, and salt, and yet
A turtle-dove, and the young set
Of a dove, and placed offering burnt
On the altar, and poured as learnt
On it offering mingled with oil,
And sprinkled grape juice on the soil
And strewed with frankincense the whole,
And caused a sweet savour that stole
Up acceptable before YHWH.
4 And YHWH smelled the sweet savour too,
And He made covenant with him
That there should never a flood dim
Again destroy the earth to rim,
That all the days of the earth’s time,
From sowing and harvest in clime
Should never cease, and cold and heat,
And summer and winter and sleet,
And day and night should not change rate
Of their order, nor cease their gait.

Beloved, in all philosophies set out
Upon theologies encircling You about,
There is no explanation of Your nose,
Nor how You relate to the smell of rose.
Your attributes divine both positive,
And, shame to say, what they call negative,
Are well inscribed on every iron creed,
And set in catechisms for my need.
But there’s no one among St. Thomas’ crew
Who thought to tell me what is in the brew.
The ancients seemed to know the smell of blood
In sacrifice demanded in a flood
Something to repair Your nose. But we fair
And thoughtless ones today breath only air.

5 ‘And you, increase and multiply
Upon the earth, and as you try
Become many on it, and be
A blessing there for all to see.

Beloved, the earth is filled to overflowing,
At least too many to feed as we’re going
With our domestics based on war and fear.
If we put out those two hogs and their gear
We’d have enough to feed the world and stowing.
In my descent I cannot claim to be
One of those multiplying on the spree,
But at least one or two in generations
Carry on my unnatural pangyrations,
A trait of character arising here,
Another there sometimes surprisingly.
Increase I have, and that is half the word
Told in the twittering and flight of bird
Beneath the firs and birches and pines stirred.

The fear of you and dread of you
I will inspire in every crew
That’s on the earth and in the sea.
6 And indeed I have given you
All beasts, and all winged things in view,
And everything that moves on earth,
And the fish in the waters’ berth,
And all things for food, as green herb,
I’ve given you all things superb
To eat. 7 But flesh, with life in it,
With the blood, such things are not fit
For you to eat, for the life of
All flesh is in the blood above,
Lest your blood of your lives shall be
Required in vengeance. At the plea
Of every man’s hand, at the hand
Of every beast I will require
The blood of humankind’s desire.

This thing has gone awry, Beloved, You know
How many now lap up the blood for show
And force their children to imbibe the evil
While turning up their noses at the weevil.
Blood puddings and pancakes make the dessert
Of bishops and their parishes alert.
Since You say all things can be eaten they
Have eaten every corpse found in the way
And slain at their own license everything
From porker to the buzzard on the wing,
And taken both blood and the sacred lives
Of beasts whose precious memory survives
In Your heart only. My Beloved, make room
In Your heart for those passing through their tomb.

8 Whoever sheds man’s blood by man
Shall his blood be shed, for by plan
Of Ælohim He has made man.
9 And you, increase and multiply
On the earth.’ 10 And Noah thereby
And his sons swore that they would not
Eat any blood that was the lot
Of any flesh, and he made there
A covenant where he did swear
Before the Lord and Ælohim
For ever throughout all the team
Of generations of the earth
In this month. 11 And because of this
He told you that you should not miss
Making a covenant with folk
Of Israel in this month He spoke
Upon the mountain with an oath,
And that you should sprinkle in troth
The blood on them because of all
The words of the covenant thrall,
Which YHWH made with them all for ever.
12 And this witness is written clever
Concerning you that you observe
It always, so that you not swerve
To eat on any day the blood
Of beasts or birds after the flood
Or cattle during all the days
Of the earth, and the one whose ways
Is to eat blood of beast or cattle
Or of birds during all the battle
Days of the earth, he and his folk
Descended from any such bloke
Shall be rooted out of the land.
13 And so give Israel’s folk command
To eat no blood, so that their names
And their descendants without blames
May be before YHWH our God ever.
14 And for this law there is no sever
To limit days, for it’s for ever.

You did not know, Beloved, when You implied
Or rather stated this law should abide
That some would in time take a twisted view
Of Paul and say he spoke better than You
In saying anything in paunch goes well
As long as its eaten with proper spell
Pronounced in thanks even in Israel.
Only the weak, it seems, despicable,
Avoid filling the gut with pork when full,
But the strong and holy leave lips unwiped
Glorying in the blood that drips when hyped.
The heathen hero’s been since Noah’s time
The measure of all human song and rhyme.
Let me be no hero among the crew.

They shall observe it throughout their
Generations, so they be there
Supplicating on your behalf
With blood before the altar staff,
Every day and at morning time
And evening they shall seek in rhyme
Forgiveness on your behalf there
Perpetually before YHWH’s share
That they may keep it and not be
Rooted out and eternally.
15 And He gave to Noah and his
Sons a sign that there should not whiz
Again a flood upon the earth.
16 He set His bow in the cloud’s girth
For a sign of eternal worth
In promise that there should not be
Again a flood on earth and sea
To destroy it all the earth’s days.
17 For this reason is ordained praise
And written on celestial tablets,
That they should celebrate as habits
The feast of weeks in this month each
Year, to renew the promise preached.
18 And this whole festival was kept
In heaven since creation leapt
Until Noah’s lifetime appears,
Twenty-six jubilees and years
Of five weeks [1309-1659 A.M.]: and Noah and his
Sons observed it for seven, that is,
Of jubilees, one week of years,
Till day of Noah’s death appears,
And from the day of Noah’s death
His sons did away with its breath
Until the days of Abraham,
And they eat blood as well as ham.
19 But Abraham observed it, and
Isaac and Jacob in the land,
And his children observed it up
To your days, with both plate and cup,
In your days Israel’s folk forgot
It till you feasted it in plot
On this mountain. 20 And give command
To the children of Israel’s band
To keep this festival in all
Their generations for a ball,
A commandment to them: one day
In the year in this month shall they
Observe the festival. 21 For it
Is the feast of weeks and the fit
Feast of first fruits: this feast is two,
And of a double nature’s view:
22 According to what’s written and
Engraved concerning it, remand.
For I have written in the book
Of the first law, and if you look
In that which I wrote down for you,
That You should celebrate it due
In its season, one day a year,
And I explained to you its gear
In sacrifices that the folk
Of Israel should remember yoke
And should celebrate it throughout
Their generations without doubt
In this month, one day every year.
23 And on the [first day to appear]
Of the first month, and on the [first
Day] of the fourth month, not the worst,
And on the [first day] of the seventh
Month, and the [first day, not eleventh]
Of the tenth month are days to be
Kept in remembrance, and to Me,
And the days of the seasons in
The four divisions of the year.
These are written and ordained in
Witness for ever to appear.

Though I bring Your name to remembrance each
Breath of each day and night, and come to preach
Your grace and word on every Sabbath day,
I still find four gates waiting in the sway
Of seasons in the four days that You set
For the remembrance of Your name once met.
The seasons all begin with one day taken
From the middle of the sacred week shaken
To come before You with the sweetest scent
Of the soil and the air for what they meant.
Beloved, the four divisions of the year
Remind me to cast out all blame and fear
And know that there is none to praise but You,
And none enthroned outside Your care and view.

24 And Noah ordained them for him
As feasts to generations dim
For ever, so that they’ve become
Thereby memorial to his sum.
25 And on the [first day] of the first
Month he was bidden and not cursed
To make for himself an ark, and
On that day the earth became land
And dry again and he opened
The ark and saw the earth and land.
26 And on the [first day] of the fourth
Month the mouths of the depths gone forth
In the abyss beneath were closed.
And on the [first day] of exposed
Seventh month all the mouths of these
Abysses of the earth’s decrees
Were opened, and waters began
To descend into them by plan.
27 On the tenth month’s first day the tops
Of the mountains were seen as knops,
And Noah was glad. 28 And because
Of this account he ordained laws
For himself as feasts to remember
For ever, ordained every member.
29 They placed them on the heavenly tablets,
Each had thirteen weeks in its habits,
From one to another passed their
Memorial, from the first share
To the second, and from the second
To the third, and from the third beckoned
To the fourth. 30 And all the days of
The commandment as given above
Will be fifty-two weeks of days,
And these will make the year’s arrays.
So it’s engraven and ordained
On the celestial tablets chained.
31 And there is no neglecting this
Commandment for a single miss
Of a year or from year to year.
32 And command the folk of Israel
That they observe the years as well
According to this reckoning,
Three hundred sixty-four days’ thing,
And these will constitute a year
In full and they will not disturb
Its time from its days and from herb
Of its feasts, for everything will
Fall out in them according still
To their witness, and they will not
Leave out any day from the lot
Nor disturb any feasts. 33 But if
They do neglect and they are stiff
Not to observe them according
To His commandment, then they’ll bring
Disturbance on all their seasons
And the years will be dislodged ones
From this order, [and they’ll disturb
The seasons and the years will curb
Dislodged] and they will neglect their
Ordinances given in share.
34 And all Israel’s folk will forget
And will not find the path as yet
Of the years, and will soon forget
The first days of the months, and seasons,
And Sabbaths and they’ll leave their reasons
As to the order of the years.
35 For I know and from now appears
I will declare it to you, and
It’s not devised by my own hand,
For the book lies writ before me,
And on the heavenly tablets’ tree
Division of days is ordained,
Lest they forget the feasts profaned
Of the covenant and walk by
The feasts of the Gentiles and by
Their error and their ignorance.
36 For there will be those without sense
Who will assuredly observe
The moon, how it disturbs the seasons
And comes in year to year to swerve
Ten days too soon, and for its reasons.
37 For this reason the years will come
Upon them when they will in sum
Disturb the order, and make false
Day and abominable to waltz
As day of testimony, and
An unclean day a feast day planned,
And they will confound all the days,
The holy with the unclean ways,
And unclean day with holy praise,
For they’ll go wrong as to months and
Sabbaths and feasts and jubilees.
38 For this reason I do command
And testify to you decrees
That You may testify to them,
For after your death to condemn
Your children will disturb them, so
That they will not make the year go
Three hundred sixty-four days only,
And for this reason they will go
Wrong as to the first days and lonely
Of the months and seasons and days
Of Sabbaths and festivals ways,
And they will eat all kinds of blood
With all kinds of flesh and such crud.

So every church both Jewish, Christian and
The Muslim ones, have failed to understand
The calendar set forth first in Tawrat
Confirmed in holy Qur’an and was not
Displaced by Your command, but by the lust
Of those who usurp divine powers or must.
The week is king of time and day by day
The months come on the fourth in grand array,
And then stay for the sixth day before going
To the first in the third month’s cycle, showing
The seasons to be four and every week
In every time in its own place to seek
Remembrance of the Flood and Noah’s game,
Remembrance, O Belovèd, of Your name.

WEEK 18 JUBILEES 7

1 And in the first year of the week
Number seven [1317 A.M.], and in the peek
Of this jubilee, Noah planted
Vines on the mountain on which slanted
The ark to rest, and named Lubar,
One of Ararat’s mountains far,
And they produced fruit in the year
Fourth, [1320 A.M.] and he saved their fruit in tier,
And gathered it in this year in
The seventh month. 2 And he made thin
Grape juice of it and put it in
A jar, and kept it until when
The fifth year came, [1321 A.M.] on the first day,
On the first day of first month’s pen,
And celebrated in joy’s ray
The day of this feast, 3 and he made
A holocaust to YHWH, and stayed
With one young ox and one ram too,
And seven sheep, a year old due,
And a kid of the goats, that he
Might make atonement for family
With them for himself and his sons.
4 And he prepared the kid with buns
First, and placed some of its blood on
The flesh that was on altar drawn
Which he had made, and all the fat
He laid on the altar whereat
He made burnt offering’s sacrifice,
And the ox and the ram and sheep,
He laid all their flesh there to keep
Upon the altar, laid out nice.

The first Nevruz may well have been established
By Noah’s feasting, or then re-established.
He took the wine of ecstasy saved up
From the prayers and feasts of the whole year’s cup,
And filled with gratitude and ecstasy
Of the whole year, set up his altar free
In sacrifice to make atonement for
All of his family sitting at the door.
Beloved, I see the days turn in their length
And the year start to waken in its strength,
Until the day and night in equal lays
Sing eve and dawn and ever to Your praise,
And then I too celebrate gratefully
The abundances You have given me.

5 And he placed all their offerings there
Mingled with oil upon its share,
And afterwards he sprinkled grape
Juice on the fire which in its shape
He had already made upon
The altar, and he placed well drawn
The incense on the altar and
Caused a sweet aroma to stand
Ascending and acceptable
Before YHWH his Ælohim full.

I am the kid upon the hearth now slain,
My toes are crossed, I’ve ceased to feel the pain,
But whirling on the flames of ecstasy
I send my little spark of soul set free
Before Your face, its final resting place,
To find in all creation’s glow Your grace.
I am the kid stretched out, flayed and unbroken,
Tied to Your altar in love and its token.
The breaths of prayer and praise rise up as spoken
To Your fresh palaces gleaming and bright.
The sips of wine have all been dipped and taken,
The last breaths drawn before my soul awaken
Beyond the veils, their shimmering gauze unshaken
Before the speechless wonders of my sight.

6 And he rejoiced and drank of this
Grape juice, he and his children’s bliss.
7 And it was evening, and he went
Into his tent, and being sent
In “drunken” ecstasy he lay
Down and slept, and was, as they say,
Uncovered, that is, vulnerable,
There in his tent and as he slept.
8 And Ham saw Noah as inept,
His father naked, so to say,
Vulnerable there where he lay,
And went out and told his two brothers
Outside, ridiculing the others.

The world is made of Hams, indeed, I swear
I find their ridiculing everywhere
I turn in my whirling, I find their stare
To slay the righteous with a wicked flare.
Who should look with respect to father done
Goes out to speak the ugly words in fun,
To audiences under moon and sun.
I see the strong set out to make his run.
Beloved, I turn from wisdom and from state
Of mind to find a gold and purple fate
Waiting for me, although I arrive late.
Beloved, I turn to You and Your revealing
Beyond the veils of shifting thought and feeling
To know the secret of ages concealing.

9 And Shem took his garment and rose,
He and Japheth, and they in rows
Placed the garment upon their shoulders
And went backward avoiding boulders
And covered up their father’s shame,
With their faces in backward aim.
10 And Noah awoke from his sleep
And found out all his younger peep
Had done to him, and cursed his son
And said “Cursed be Canaan as done,
An enslaved servant shall he be
To his brothers.” 11 And he blessed Shem,
And said “Blessed YHWH God of Shem be,
And Canaan shall take servant’s hem
Before him. 12 “Ælohim shall make
Japheth a large and greater stake,
And Ælohim shall abide in
The dwelling of Shem, and the sin
Of Canaan shall make him servant.”
13 And Ham knew that his father’s rant
Had cursed his younger son, and he
Was displeased at his father’s spree
To curse his son. And so he parted
From his father, from where he started,
He and his sons with him, Cush and
Mizraim, Put and Canaan’s band.

The younger son, Japheth, is placed once more
In status and in blessing far before
His elder brother. Genesis is riddled
With stories telling how the elder fiddled
And how the younger stood to take the gravy.
Let this be lesson how to make the navy.
Throughout the world one finds the mythic tale
Told always with the point that must not fail,
The etiology that comes in last
Is the whole point of the prayer and the fast.
It’s not the story, pun or glass of wine
That’s the lesson and the final, punch line.
The point is not the draught of Noah drunk,
But why the younger swam, the elder sunk.

14 And he built for himself a city
And called its name after the witty
Name of his wife, just take a look,
She’s called Ne’elatama’uk.
15 And Japheth saw it, and became
Envious of his brother’s fame,
And he too built himself a city,
And called its name, which was a pity,
After the name of his wife too
Whose name’s ‘Adataneses true.

The sacred books are mutilated for
The fact they take no women on the score.
The church fathers thought women crude and rude,
And Rabbis also railed upon the brood
And shut them behind screens, in balcony,
While men recite in their hypocrisy
Your law in homosexual harmony.
But in the lovely Scriptures of the past,
The ones that in blessed Axum came to last,
The woman’s name and honour is replete,
And even found upon the city’s seat
In place of majesty and wealth and fame.
Beloved, I would here reinstate Your name
In my heart, in my city, on my beat.

16 And Shem lived with his father Noah,
And he built a city to show her
Close to his father on the mount,
And he too called its name and fount
After the name of his wife’s gab,
Known as Sedeqetelebab.

Please note, Beloved, how great and just these men,
The sons of Noah are, as they again
And once more honour wife with ink and pen.
Their own names are simple and rather short,
As short as they can be and still cavort.
And yet they do not choose their names or those
Of their sons after them that once arose.
They’re willing to address the names that tone
In syllables both difficult and grown
To lengths almost beyond the ken of man,
Who can think only one thing and in plan
And mind it for a moment. I should think
Sedeqetelebab enough to sink
The ship of any sentence on the brink.

17 And indeed these three cities are
Still there about near Mount Lubar,
Sedeqetelebab before
The mountain on its eastern door,
And Na’eltama’uk upon
The south instead of on the dawn,
‘Adatan’eses towards the west.

I make the whirling circuit of the mount
And try to take the cities in account,
But like a man, have difficulty keeping
Their names in mind, for my mind is still sleeping.
But as I whirl in honour of Your name,
Beloved, I come to mind them just the same,
As I pass from the eastern door and run
Toward the south to find a warmer sun,
And turn west before turning back and done,
I find about Mount Lubar what was won
In fragrance of true faith beyond the law.
I find a sweetness and not tooth and claw
Where You alone bear sway before my awe.
All around Mount Lubar I find Your fame.

18 And these are the sons of Shem, best:
Elam, and Asshur, Arpachshad,
This son was born, the first they had,
Two years after the flood, and Lud,
And Aram. 19 The sons of the good
Japheth: Gomer and Magog and
Madai and Javan, Tubal and
20 Meshech and Tiras: these are all
The sons that came at Noah’s call.

The seven sons of Japheth plead their cause
Through all the weeks of years to hear Your laws,
And all the weeks of ages to acquire
The knowledge of the sacred love’s desire,
And all the weeks of days to find the root
Of love and faithfulness at Sabbath’s boot.
The eldest son, the brave, Gomer, of all
The Celts progenitor to sacred call.
His sons were driven by the Scythian throng
From their own lands to wander without wrong
In sweet Bythinian coasts, but not for long
And scattered west and northward till the sea
By Arran’s shores stood sunlit full and free
Inviting ever westward refugee.

20 In the twenty-eighth jubilee [1324-1372 A.M.]
Noah began to enjoin fee
Upon his sons’ sons ordinance
And commandment to make them dance,
And all the judgments that he knew,
And he exhorted all the crew
Of his sons to observe the right,
And cover the shame of their blight
Flesh, and to bless their Creator,
And honour father, mother more,
And love their neighbour, and to guard
Their souls from fornication’s shard
And uncleanness, iniquity.
21 For owing to these three things, see,
Came the flood on the earth, namely,
Owing to the fornication
Which Watchers against law had done
A-whoring after daughters of
Men, and took themselves wives in love
Of all they chose: and so they made
Beginning of uncleanness strayed.

Good Noah told his sons to keep the right,
And mentioned each command writ in the light
Of heavenly tablet, to cover their shame
And not bring dishonour upon the name
Of mother and father, and love the neighbour,
And guard body and soul before the labour
Of uncleanness, and all iniquity.
As grandson of Noah, I too am free
To follow Your great law, Beloved, and be
A dweller in the tents of Shem unstrayed
Into the wicked ways that watchers made.
Beloved, I lay my loved obedience
In Noah’s law, and keep the rhymed immense
Cycle of all Sabbaths’ eternity.

22 They produced sons the Naphidim,
And they were all unlike in seam,
And they devoured each another: and
The giants slew the Naphil, and
The Naphil slew the Eljo, and
The Eljo humankind, and man
Slew one another as by plan.
23 And every one sold himself to
Work iniquity as though due
And to shed much blood, and the earth
Was filled with iniquity’s dearth.

Even today the great majority
Believe this thing and believe sincerely
That law and order and not anarchy
Require bloodshed, not living peacefully.
I know the thought does violence to all
That can be reason, but the judgement hall
Of earthly kings would have it be this way,
And so the rabble follow kingly sway.
But You and I know, my Beloved and true
That bloodshed only wrecks the earthly dew,
And no cross on Golgotha can restore
The right mind and settle the divine score.
Beloved, both earth and heart are cleansed alone
By peace and life, not death upon the stone.

24 And after this they sinned again
Against the beasts and birds in fen,
And all that moves and walks on earth:
And much blood was shed on the earth,
And every imagination
And desire of men were to shun
For vanity and always ill.
25 And YHWH destroyed all things that fill
The surface of the earth, because
Of wickedness of their deeds’ claws,
And because of the blood which they
Had shed on earth He wiped away
Everything. 26 “And we were left, I
And you, my sons, and under sky
Everything that entered with us
Into the ark as populace.

One thing alone lifts humankind to height
Of a unique and soaring gifted flight.
The eagle has a better eye, the dog
A better nose, but a man’s unique cog
Is the imagination. Witness song,
And novel, film, theatre, and the strong
Form and colours of art. Imagination
Is what gives humankind its magic station.
I seek You, my Beloved, in my elation
Through all the passages that reason wends
Until I break through veil with spire that rends
Into the heights of holy space to view
Above all things Your face that never crew
Of flesh can see, remove evil anew.

And lo I see your works before
Me that you don’t walk righteous score:
For in path of destruction you
Have begun to walk not a few,
And you are parting from the one
And from other, with envy done
Of one another, till it be
That you are not in harmony,
My sons, each with his brother. 27 “For
I see, and indeed demons more
Seductions have begun to roar
Against you and against your spawn,
And so I fear what’s coming on
You, that after my death you’ll shed
The blood of men upon earth’s bed,
And that you, too, will be destroyed
From the face of the earth employed.
28 “For whoever sheds a man’s blood,
And whoever eats of the blood
Of any flesh, shall be destroyed
From the earth. 29 “And there shall not be
Left any man that eats blood free,
Or that sheds the blood of man on
The earth, nor shall there be left drawn
To him any seed or descendants
Living under heaven dependents,
For into Sheol there they go,
And into the place of the glow
Of condemnation they’ll go down,
And into the dark and deep town
They shall all be removed by death
In violence to take their breath.

I weep, Beloved, to feel within my breast
That same attraction that swells without rest
And cries for vengeance, bloody vengeance poured
Upon the head of the great rapine horde
That rushes on the world in commerce bent.
Without the killing, there’s no money lent.
Ah, my Beloved, I weep to see the day
Dawn with the red of slaughter on the way
Dealt out with the disarming argument
That without war there can let no peace stay.
That rationale of paradox allows
The word to pass among the sacred cows,
And even my heart with that wrath convinced
Returns for peace to sanity blood-rinsed.

30 There shall be no blood seen upon
You of all the blood there withdrawn
Shall be all the days in which you
Have killed any beasts or a few
Of cattle or whatever flies
Upon the earth in the fowls’ guise,
And work you a good work to your
Souls by covering that which you pour
On the face of the earth. 31 “And you
Shall not be like him who eats blood
With the flesh, but guard yourselves true
That none before you may eat blood.

The very priests that fool the folk adore
The wafer and the wine and when they pour
The red wine in the cup they lift it high
And claim the blood with a blasphemous cry.
Ah, my Beloved, let me not drink the blood
That has been poured on earth and since the flood
Defiled the soil, the hand and heart of man
And woman with the heat of vengeance plan.
Ah, my Beloved, let me not taste that wine
That brings life to the cell of gourd and vine,
To eye and ear of every creeping thing,
To hand and heart of peasant, worker, king.
Ah, my Beloved, Creator of the flow
Let none stop what he cannot again show.

Cover the blood, for so I’ve been
Commanded to witness of sin
To you and your children, together
With all flesh in whatever weather.
32 “And don’t allow the soul to be
Eaten with the flesh wickedly,
That your blood, which is your life, may
Not be required at the hand’s stay
Of any flesh to shed on earth.
33 “For the earth in all of its girth
Will not be clean from the blood which
Has been shed there flowing in ditch,
For only through the blood of him
That shed it will the earth undim
Be purified throughout all ages.
34 “And now, my children, hear the stages,
Work judgment here and righteousness
That you may be given firm address
In righteousness in the whole world,
And your glory lifted unfurled
Before my God, who saved me from
The waters of the flood to come.

The flood saved Noah and his sons from death
By violence that crested on the breath
Of humankind in ages past, and yet
Today there die thousands by the hand met
In violence each day and night that’s set.
You had him tell his sons to leave the cause
Of violence and to obey Your laws,
But in the dark of illusion and veils
In ignorance caught up as wisdom’s sails
His grandchildren set out to prove him right
As they lifted up hand and heart in spite.
Ah, my Beloved, pluck from its evil spore
All violence from my heart and its door.
I stand and wait before Your throne for right.

35 “And indeed, you will go and build
For yourselves cities, and plant filled
In them all the plants on the earth,
And moreover all trees of worth
Bearing fruit. 36 “For three years the fruit
Of everything that’s eaten root
Will not be gathered: and then in
The fourth year its fruit in the bin
Will be accounted holy [and
They’ll offer the first-fruits of land],
Acceptable before the Most
High God, who created the host
Of heaven and earth and all things there.
Let them offer abundance fair,
The first of the grape juice and oil
As first-fruits on the altar’s soil
To YHWH, who receives it, and what
Is left let the servants who’re shut
In the house of YHWH eat before
The altar which receives its store.

Peace is done on the earth as each man goes
To plant fruit trees for every one that shows
Upon the field in hunger to reach out
A hand and taste the sweetness of the stout.
Not swords but ploughshares goes angelic song
To foster right and prevent all the wrong.
Beloved, I lay firm faith in planted tree
That bears the apple and the puckery
Persimmon, and the pear and peach and plum
To grant us peace and love where we come from.
I trust in wheat and measure of the nut,
The walnut filled with life and life unshut.
I witness to the bread and wine instead
Of blood of man and animal once shed.

37 “And in the fifth year make release
So that you release its increase
In righteousness and uprightness,
And you shall be righteous to bless,
And all that you plant shall prosper.
38 “For thus did Enoch, the father
Of your father command his son
Methuselah, Methuselah
Commanded Lemech too his son,
And Lemech gave to me the law
Of all the things his fathers said
Commanding him. 39 “So I too spread
To you commandment, my sons, as
Enoch commanded his son as
In the first jubilees: whilst still
Living, the seventh in the bill
Of his generation, he said
Commanding, testifying, read
To his son and his son’s sons fed
Until his death’s day by his will.”

The silsila of Enoch marks the spot
Where You, Beloved, continue with the taught.
I sit at Enoch’s feet and find Your word
Sung sweetly like the nightingale once heard.
The chain of that transmission echoes still
Around the world on every plain and hill,
And hangs there for the grasping of the ear
For everyone whose heart has shed its fear
To take Your loving soul and sacrifice
The darkness grasping on the fire and ice.
Beloved, I sip the words, I fill my soul
With messages that never take their toll,
But ripen with the date and grape and nut
To find no gates of glory have been shut.

JUBILEES 8

1 In the twenty-ninth jubilee,
In the first week, [1373 A.M.] and in the free
Beginning of it Arpachshad
Took him a wife, the name she had
Was Rasu’eja, Susan’s daughter,
The daughter of Elam who brought her,
And she bore him a son upon
The third year in this week, [1375 A.M.] as spawn
And he called his name Kainan’s lad.

The patriarchal genealogies
Make think there are no other things but these.
So many writers who wrote down Your word
Remembered only males for the absurd.
The truth is every man has also mother,
And there is sister found for every brother.
This little genealogy found here
Makes everything else written much more clear.
There is a genealogy of sons
And fathers decked out dashing in home-runs.
But there is also genealogy
Of mothers down through daughters that we see.
You did not make, Beloved, the world alone
For men’s but also women’s breeding zone.

2 As the son grew, his father taught
Him writing, and he went a spot
To seek himself a place where he
Might seize for himself a city.
3 And he found a writing there which
Former generations in switch
Had carved on the rock, and he read
What was on it, and he was led
To transcribe it and sinned thereby,
For it contained the teaching sly
Of the Watchers in accordance
With which they used to enter trance
To observe omens of the sun
And moon and stars of every run
In all the signs of heaven done.
4 And he wrote it down and said naught
About it, for he was in thought
Afraid to speak to Noah such,
Lest he be angry with his touch.

The watchers’ burden still is found inscribed
On stone and lichen, in the faith imbibed
With every sort of heathendom and fair
To which one must show tolerance, declare
All things having right to place under sun.
But do not tell Noah what thing is done.
The secret writing, whispered spell, the slip
Of herb and root, arm akimbo on hip,
To slay the unwary with word on lip,
Ah, my Beloved, keep from my mind and trip.
The omens of the sky are clear to see
And draw all men to folly faithfully,
But let my soul come to Your heart and flee
From my self and the ways of fiery ship.

5 And in the thirtieth jubilee, [1429 A.M.]
In the second week, in the wee
First year of it, he took a wife,
And her name was Melka for strife,
The daughter of Madai, the son
Of Japheth, and in the fourth run
Of the year [1432 A.M.] he produced a son,
And called his name Shelah, he said
“Truly I have been sent as led.”
6 [And in the fourth year he was born],
And Shelah grew up without scorn
And took himself a wife whose name
Was Mu’ak, daughter without blame
Of Kesed, his father’s brother,
In the thirty-first jubilee,
In the fifth week, in the first year
That came upon earth to appear. [1499 A.M.]

An extra generation comes in here
That was not found in Genesis, I fear.
Expunged no doubt because he did not tell
Noah the secret of the root and spell
That he found struck upon the written rock.
But Noah brought the ark safe into dock,
So he should be able to survive talk
Of witch and warlock when great grandsons balk.
Beloved, how many seek in lapses done
By human pen and heart under the sun
Excuse to set aside Your word for fun.
Let me not enter in the camp of those
Who quibble at the magic or the throes.
Each reaps indeed the sprout of hopes he sows.

7 And she bore him a son in that
Week’s fifth year [1503 A.M.], and from where he sat
He called his name Eber: he took
Unto himself a wife, and look
Her name was ‘Azurad, the daughter
Of Nebrod, when he went and sought her,
In thirty-second jubilee,
In the seventh week, in the third
Year of it he was undeterred. [1564 A.M.]
8 And in the sixth year [1567 A.M.] of it, she
Bore him a son, he called his name
Peleg, for in days without shame
When he was born Noah’s spawn came
To divide earth among themselves:
For this reason and not for elves,
He called him Peleg. 9 Secretly
They divided it the barony
Among them, told Noah the game.

Division of the earth, Beloved, was made
Showing the instinct in human heart stayed
To territorial. That instinct lies
Upon a sense of justice that is wise,
And gives each one a place beneath the sun.
The instinct to grasp and to overrun
Is no doubt just a curving of the true
In on the self, the same curving in view
Where self forgets that every self is due
To Self, O my Beloved, alone that’s You.
Divide the earth again to give estate
To bird and beast and human being’s fate,
And all can live reflecting beyond dream
What You are indeed and not what You seem.

10 And it happened in the beginning
Of thirty-third jubilee’s inning [1569 A.M.]
That they divided up the earth
Into three parts, one for Shem’s worth,
And for Ham and Japheth one each,
According to heritage reach,
In the first year in the first week,
When one of us who’d been to seek,
Was with them. 11 And he called his sons,
And they came near him on their buns,
They and their children, and he set
The earth divided into lots,
Which his three sons took as their plots,
And they reached out their hands to take
The writ from Noah’s bosom’s wake,
Noah their father. 12 And there came
Forth on the writing to Shem’s name
The lot in the middle of earth
Which he should take as plot in worth
For himself and for his sons in
Their generations to begin
And to eternity to win,
From the middle of mountain range
Of Rafa, from the mouth’s exchange
Of water from the river Tina,
And his portion goes towards the finer
West through the middle of this stream,
And it extends up to the scene
Of the water of the abyss,
Out of which this river to kiss
Goes out and pours its waters in
The sea of Me’at, and this stream
Flows into the great sea a-gleam.

Identify for me, Beloved, the names
Of the mountains and rivers in Shem’s claims.
I do not find them marked upon the map,
Although I search the middle of the flap.
Divide Your heart, Beloved, among the three
And give the middle part to Shem and me,
And I shall dwell forever in the lea
Of Your mercy and justice without blames.
Beloved, I look out on the sea’s abyss
From where the mountains of the Jordan kiss
The purple sky, and see the skirts descend
Upon the land that Shem gave out to fend.
Division’s yet a burning question here,
Which still shows how men’s hearts lie in Your fear.

And all that is towards the side
Of the north is Japheth’s betide,
And all that is towards the south
Belongs to Shem, both foot and mouth.
13 And it extends till it comes to
Karaso: in the heart and crew
Which looks towards the southland dew.
14 And his portion extends along
The great sea, and it goes out strong
In a straight line till it comes to
The west of the tongue which looks true
South: for indeed this sea is named
The tongue of Egypt’s Sea and framed.

I ride upon the north side of the dam
Where snows in winter are the oriflamme
Of day filled with the night. In Japheth’s land
I breathe his air and eat the contraband.
For who knows in this day whose blood flows free
In veins taught to wander unceasingly?
Shem and Japheth unite perhaps to be
Two fathers of one soul that faithfully
Would find Your law written on human heart
No matter who the father at the start.
And so with tongue of Japheth and the glow
Of Shem I meet the days and years below
Punctuated with Sabbaths set among
The sons of Noah for each ready tongue.

15 And it turns from here towards the south,
Towards the shore of the great sea’s mouth,
And goes to the west to ‘Afra,
And till it reaches the éclat
Of river Gihon’s flashing stream,
And to the south as it would seem
Of the waters of Gihon, to
The banks of this river and true.

Gihon’s a stream known to the blessed word
Of Genesis, a stream that has me stirred
In the dance of the wandering human herd
That in its slow gyrations east and west
Makes out a whirl of worship of the best.
Gihon turns in the way of blessedness
While still leaving the soul to dance and guess,
Relying on Your heart alone to know
The ways upon the desert earth to go.
I follow the four streams to the four gates
Where blessedness at last and middle waits
And find the day and night to make the show
With rising, falling curtains on the plates,
And wandering among the jeweled estates.

16 And it extends towards the east,
Until it reaches Eden’s feast,
To the south of it, and from there
To the whole land of Eden’s share
In the east, it turns to the east
And proceeds till it reaches east
Of the mountain named Rafa, and
It descends into the bank land
Of the mouth of the river Tina.
17 This portion came out by lot finer
For Shem and his sons, that they should
Possess it for ever and would
In his generations to be
For ever and eternally.

The man who whirls today upon the earth
May find the desert dry and parched with dearth,
And see the running to and fro to find
The bread of life taken up from the blind
In famine as Amos once prophesied.
The man who whirls today may never hide,
But on the sterile plain and countryside
May find where his footsteps touched earth in pride
That the bright Word again as streams afresh
In chains of gold and diamonds feet enmesh
To tinkle with the angels’ voices on
The jewelled marches of the coming dawn.
Beloved, I cantillate the ancient Word
With running feet and with heart once more stirred.

18 And Noah rejoiced that this plot
Fell to Shem and his sons a jot,
And he remembered all that he
Had spoken in his prophecy,
For his mouth had said ‘Blessèd be
YHWH God of Shem and may YHWH stay
In the dwelling of Shem and way.’

Of three sons one is always better set
To hear his father’s favour and to get
The love and the devotion of the one
Who bore him, there’s always a favourite son.
The best-loved gets the better lot in life,
The best-loved lives to learn fraternal strife
Must be his lot. Beloved, do You share this
Way of relating with a hug and kiss?
Perhaps You do, for life is never fair.
We get what we grasp from the other’s ware,
Or remain without our own needed share.
The preachers tell us yet the ones who find
Wealth are truly blessed by You for their kind.
They are unblessed whose cupboards remain bare.

19 He knew that Eden’s garden was
The holy of holies, and was
The dwelling-place of YHWH, and Mount
Sinai the centre of the fount
Of desert, and Mount Zion yet
The navel of the earth well set:
These three were created to be
Holy places set facingly.

The naval of the earth is Zion’s hill.
When I was there I felt no special thrill.
It is not certain really where Sinai
Stands, several mountains have a claim to vie.
And even less certain is Eden’s grove.
It could be Gerizim or Mecca’s stove.
This holy Trinity in time and place
Is Your gift to the entire human race
Who turn in time and whirl to find Your face
And find it where You bless with gear and grace.
The fourth hill is the sacred one that’s found
Beside the hearth and on the holy ground
Of every threshold that is raised in air.
I open doors and every time You’re there.

20 And he blessed the God of gods, who
Had put in his mouth word of YHWH,
And YHWH for evermore. 21 And he
Knew that a blessèd portion free
And a blessing had come to Shem
And to his sons unto the sway
Of many generations’ day,
The whole land of Eden and more,
The whole land of the Red Sea shore,
The whole land of the east in store
And India, and on the Red
Sea and the mountains of it spread,
And all the land of Bashan, and
All the land of Lebanon’s strand
And the islands of Kaftur, and
All the mountains of Sanir and
‘Amana, and the mountains of
Asshur in the north, and for love
All the land of Elam, Asshur,
And Babel, and Susan and pure
Ma’edai, all the mountains of
Ararat, all the space beyond
The sea, and that which is beyond
The mountains of Asshur toward
The north, a blessed and spacious sward,
And all that’s in it’s very good.
22 And for Ham came forth as it should
The second portion, beyond where
The Gihon towards the south in share
Stands to the right of Eden fair,
And it extends towards the south
And it goes to all fiery mouth
Of the mountains, and it extends
Towards the west and to where bends
The sea of ‘Atel and extends
Towards the west until it reach
The sea of Ma’uk, on that beach
Into which all things not destroyed
Descend. 23 And it goes and employed
Towards the north and to the edge
Of Gadir, and it goes in pledge
Out to the coastlines of the sea
To the waters of the great sea
Till it draws near Gihon’s stream there,
And goes along the river’s share
Of Gihon till it reach the right
Of the Garden of Eden’s sight.
24 And this is the land which fell to
Ham as the portion he was due
To occupy for ever, he
And his sons after him for free
Unto their generations’ fee
From then on and eternally.

To every son is given land of wealth
Despite the difference in ruth and stealth.
Though I may be a son without the show,
I still reflect Your image on the go
And deserve with the rest a faithful place
Of beauty under sun, and full of grace.
Beloved, all men share equally in You
Despite inequity of earthly view,
And all for spite are filled with glory so
That none are left behind in rarity.
The bright and certain stones of human heart
Are polished perfectly to claim their part.
The prayer and sacrifice in purity
Wipe clean the slate and show the lightning start.

25 And for Japheth came out the third
Portion beyond the river spurred,
The river Tina and toward
The north of the outflow that poured
With its waters, and it extends
Northeasterly to all the ends
Of Gog, and to all of the trace
Of the country east of its face.
26 And it extends northerly to
The north, and so it extends to
The mountains of Qelt towards the way
Of the north, and towards the spray
Of the sea of Ma’uk, and goes
Out to the east of Gadir’s rows
As far as the place by which flows
The water of the sea. 27 And it
Extends until it comes to sit
In the west of Fara and it
Returns towards ‘Aferag, and
It extends easterly to stand
At the waters of Me’at’s sea.
28 And it extends to the place free
Of the river Tina to be
In a northeasterly way till
It nears the boundary of the fill
Of its waters towards the mount
Rafa, and it turns round to count
Towards the north. 29 This is the land
Which fell to Japheth’s plot and hand
And to his sons as heritage
And possession from age to age,
Five great islands, and a great land
In the north. 30 But it’s a cold strand,
And the land of Ham, it is hot,
And the land of Shem in his plot
Is neither hot nor cold, but it’s
A mix of cold and heat as fits.

Although three sacred sites are given Shem
When there should have been one for each of them,
Eden and Sinai join Jerusalem
In one great heritage and polished gem,
Still Japheth’s store is bright, it is the best
For us who look toward the north and west.
Beloved, I love the velvet winter night
With snow and ice and sky veils glowing bright,
I love the tundra with its vast emotions
Turbulent stretching as far as its oceans.
I love the midnight sun, I love the toil
Immoderate that weakens at the foil
And sleeps when fire of leaf meets on the soil
Of autumn. My Beloved, I love the sight.



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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