II ESDRAS CHAPTER 9 - 12

2 ESDRAS 9

1 He answered me and said “Think well,
And when you see a certain spell
Of signs predicted has gone past,
2 “Then you will know it’s time at last
When the Most High will soon return
Upon the world He’s made to earn.
3 “So when there shall appear earthquakes
In the world, tumult for folks’ sakes,
Intrigues of nations, leaders weak,
Confusion of princes to peek,
4 “Then you will know it was of these
That the Most High spoke in decrees
From ancient days and from the start.
5 “Just as with everything that comes
On earth, the start is clear in part,
And the end shows itself in sums,
6 “So also are times of Most High:
The start’s revealed in wondrous deeds,
And the end in requital’s needs
And signs of reality’s seeds.
7 “And it shall be that every one
Who will be saved when he is done,
And will be able to escape
On account of his works in shape,
Or on account of the faith by
Which he has believed in the pie,
8 “Will pass through safe from every woe
That is predicted for the show,
And will see My salvation in
My land and in My borders’ bin,
Which I’ve set apart for Myself
From the beginning on the shelf.

The signs of divine intervention take
Huge masses of attention for the sake
Of every sort of catastrophic make.
My sense of due proportion, I aver,
Answers not a whit to what would appear
Sufficient in Your lordly sight and mind.
My sense would say enough’s enough declined.
Come what may, still the human heart is blind.
Eclipse and earthquake hardly make a dent.
Likely we’re both wrong, Lord, in where we went.
When You would get attention from the crew,
A bigger kind of sign is surely due.
I too have such a short attention span
Nothing You do seems to affect my plan.

9 “Then those who have abused My ways
Shall be in wonder at My stays,
And those who have rejected them
In their disdain I shall condemn
To torment. 10 “All who in their life
Did not acknowledge Me in strife,
Although they had My benefits,
11 “And all who scorned My law in wits
While they enjoyed liberty’s grits,
Not understanding it in scorn
Of repentance within their bourne,
12 “These must bow to its duty in
Torment after their death in sin.
13 “So do not waste time with the thought
How the ungodly in their lot
Will be punished, instead inquire
How the righteous are saved from ire,
Those to whom the age does belong
And for whose sake it was made strong.”

I do enjoy Your benefits, Beloved,
Forget-me-notted, dandelioned, fox-gloved.
I taste the dew on lady’s mantle too,
Although for thirst that little cup won’t do,
And I require the spring below the leaf
And bloom of lilac to remember grief.
But it remains whether I stop to show
Acknowledgement to You before I go.
Sometimes I do. The morning finds my song
Of Psalm aloud or silent by the throng
Of tasks distracting on the daily wheel.
Is that enough to be heeled with Your seal?
The round of Your acknowledgement I feel
Ought to be up to rejection of wrong.

14 I answered and said 15 “I said once
Before, and now though I’m a dunce,
I say, and will say it again:
There are more destroyed among men
Than those who will be saved at last,
16 As a wave’s greater than drop cast.”
17 He answered me and said “As is
The field, so is the seed of his,
And as the flowers, so are the hues,
And as the work, the end in views,
As is the farmer, so the floor
Of threshing. 18 “For there was a score
In this age when I was preparing
For those who now exist in daring,
Before the world was made for them
To live in, and no stratagem
Yet opposed Me then, for no one
Existed, 19 “but now those who’ve come
Created in this world which is
Provided with both food in biz
And pastures without end, are now
Corrupted in their ways somehow.
20 “So I considered My world, and
Behold, it was lost, and My land,
And surely it was fit to spoil
Because of engines of the toil
Of those who had come in its coil.
21 “I saw and saved some with My hand,
One grape out of a cluster, and
One plant in a whole forest’s stand.
22 “So let perish the multitude
Which has been born in vain in brood,
But let My grape and plant be saved,
Because with much I have engraved
Them perfect, if I’ve not enslaved.

The heads of wheat that cast upon the floor
Of threshing make a pile perhaps much more
Than was hoped by the farmer come before,
And yet the stack is always smaller than
The stack of chaff, to say no word in plan
About the brazen stalks thrown in the fire.
I find about me naught but burning ire
And the poor pound of corn to feed the choir.
Beloved, no one complains about the great
Difference between the waste and the rebate
When comes to corn, and yet Ezra a while
Would cry remorse upon the human guile
That brings the strutted stalks into the place
Of their destruction like the human race.

23 “But if along the way you’ll let
Just seven days more pass, forget
To fast in them, however, 24 “but
Go in a field of flowers in rut
Where no house has been built, and eat
Only of the field’s flowers for meat,
And taste no flesh and drink no wine,
But eat only flowers on the vine,
25 “And pray to the Most High the while,
I’ll come and talk with you in style.”
26 I went, as he directed me,
Into the field Ardat to see,
And there I sat among the flowers
And ate the plants of the field’s bowers,
Satisfied with their nourishment.
27 And after seven days, as I
Lay on the grass, my heart was shy
Again as it was times before.

I’ve eaten meadow flowers myself in spring
And in the summer light and autumn’s fling.
I’ve munched on goat’s foot for the celery,
And smelled like anything sweet cicely,
And bit the tender neck of violet,
And touched to tongue the milk before it’s set
Of dandelion. I’ve made a sacred lunch
Of bare chickweed, and satisfied a hunch
With the lamb’s quarter, cut and steamed to fit.
I’ve eaten meadow gifts and thought them fit.
Beloved, my eating of the simple flowers
Has not made me a prophet under showers
Unless it’s everyone who is not loved
By his own land and church who’s prophet gloved.

28 And my mouth was opened like door,
And I began to speak before
The Most High, and said 29 “O Lord, You
Did show Yourself among us true,
To our fathers in wilderness
When they came from Egypt’s address
And when they came into the way
Untrodden of the desert’s way
With no fruit there, 30 and You did say,
‘Hear me, O Israel, and give heed
To my words, descendants decreed
Of Jacob. 31 For indeed, I plant
My law in you, and it shall grant
Fruit in you and forever be
Through all to stand in its glory.’
32 But though our fathers heard the law,
They did not keep it for a straw,
And did not keep the statutes’ toil,
But fruit of the law did not spoil,
For it could not, for it was Yours.
33 Yet those who heard it perished too,
Because they did not keep in view
What had been planted in their due.
34 Behold, it is the rule that, when
The ground is planted, or the sea
Receives a ship, or any dish
Is filled with food or drink on wish,
And when it happens that what’s sown
Or launched or set is overthrown,
35 They are destroyed, but the things that
Held them remain there where they sat,
Yet with us it has not been so.
36 For we who have received the law
And sinned will perish like a straw,
As well as our heart which heard it,
37 The law, however, as is fit
Does not perish but stays to shine
Still in all its glory divine.”

Unless good Ezra was indeed occulted
With other men of fame and not insulted,
He too has passed into the lower gloom
Like all men and like women to the room
Of waiting out the centuries till death
Is cast into the fire for its last breath.
Whether he kept the single law or not,
His life is laid upon the selfsame plot
As that of every man. Their fate’s the same.
There’s not yet demonstration of the game
Of Paradise unfolded on the west.
The eastern glow is all we know at best.
Beloved, let me keep Your law though the day
Disappear on the centuries away.

38 When I said these things in my heart,
I lifted up my eyes to start
And saw a woman on my right,
Behold, she mourned and wept in plight,
And was deeply grieved at her heart,
And her clothing was torn apart,
There were ashes upon her head.
39 I put my thoughts where I’d been led
Out of my mind, and turned to her
40 And said to her, “Why do you stir
Yourself with weeping, why are you
In sorrow of heart beyond due?”

I too see weeping women in the way,
Although it is not common here today.
They mostly weep where war is common play
And people bartered for the price of oil
And for the tinsel and the wrapping foil.
I too see weeping women when the time
Of sunshine on the wedding is sublime
And when the bier is carried in last climb
Above the kirk to where the tombstone pale
Under their lichened, mossy, changing veil
To hope for coming days not still and stale.
Beloved, the earth weeps for her sorrowed dead
And all the many loved ones she has spread
Upon her bosom and brought down to hide
Within the darkness of eternal bride.

41 And she said to me, “Let me be,
Sir, so I can keep to my spree
Of mourning, since in bitterness
Of spirit I am in distress.”
42 And I said to her, “What’s occurred
To you? Tell me what I’ve not heard.”
43 And she said to me, “Your servant
Was barren and with no child sent,
Though I lived with my husband for
Thirty years, ten beyond a score.
44 “And every hour and every day
Of those thirty years in my way
I prayed the Most High night and day.
45 “And after thirty years God heard
Your handmaid, and smiled on my shard
To take note of distress of mine,
And gave me a son on the vine.
Greatly did I rejoiced for him,
My husband and I and the rim
Of all my neighbours, and we gave
Great glory to the Mighty Brave.
46 “I brought him up with care as due.
47 “And when he grew up in my view
I came to take a wife for him,
And set a day for marriage hymn.

The woman prays for welcome, faithful son
To cheer her age with ease upon the run.
The woman prays and gets a man-child won
And day by day addresses him in fun.
The breathing blessing from the mother’s lip
Around the toys of horse and cart and ship
Are never ceasing though sleep come at last
To rest her burdens from the evil past.
Beloved, the future is an evil sight
As dark as the past on my early night,
And yet I live in hope and charity
Despite the knowledge of the coming spree.
The wedding chimes of my eternity
Find Wisdom has a part, a branch, a right.

2 ESDRAS 10

1 “It happened when my son came in
The bridal room he fell down dead.
2 Extinguishing the lights within
All my neighbours tried in my stead
To comfort, but I without word
Stayed till eve of the second blurred
Day, when I got up in the night
And fled to this field out of sight
As you have found me without right.
4 I never intend to return
To the town, and all food I spurn
And drink, but without end raise cry
Of mourning till the time I die.”

There’s not a soul but knows to weep the strain
Of sorrow that falls to her lot in pain.
Each one born to this world knows first to cry
The searing thrust of existence to try.
The hurt, the illness, and injustice rife,
The famine and the pest, the end of life
All serve as one to raise the piercing wail
From every throat that’s made to tell the tale.
Yet each one’s heart is covered with a veil
That numbs the other’s pain and saves the heart
From feeling every occasion and part.
Only the great saints feel the hurt of all,
And that is why sainthood’s not fancy ball,
But crying with the poor in slaughter stall.

5 I ceased the cogitations I
Was still engaged in to reply
To her in wrath, and so I said
6 “You foolish of all women bred,
Don’t you see how we weep and mourn
For all the things that we have born?
7 “For Zion, mother of us all,
Is in grief and affliction’s thrall.
8 “It is most meet to sorrow now,
Because we all have weeping brow,
And go with sadness, for we all
Are pushed by sorrow to the wall,
While you weep for one son, yet we,
The whole world cry out desperately
For our mother. 9 “Now ask the earth,
And she will tell you in your dearth
That she should sorrow for the great
Many who’ve gone to her estate.
10 “From the start all were born of her,
And others will come plume and fur,
And almost all go to the pit,
A crowd into destruction fit.
11 “So who should cry and weep the more,
She who lost so great a crowd’s store,
Or you who grieve at one son’s door?
12 “But if you say to me, ‘My grief
Is not like the earth’s for relief,
For I have lost fruit of my womb,
Which I brought forth in pain and doom,
13 “But with the earth it is the course
Of its way, the crowd to its source
Goes as it came and so perforce,’
14 “Then I say to you, ‘As you brought
Forth in sorrow, so the earth sought
Also has from her start the fruit,
That is, man, to Him who gave suit.’
15 “So keep your sorrow to yourself,
And stiffly stand beneath the shelf
Of distress that has come on you.
16 “For if Ælohim ban your trust,
Then you know His decree is just,
And you will get your son again
In due time to live among men,
And will be praised by women’s tongues.
17 “So go back to the city’s rungs
To your husband.” 18 She said to me,
“I will not do so and to flee
Back to the city, but die here.”

The argument that none should feel her pain
And lie around in meadows to complain
Because the city’s filled with greater loss
Is hardly argument above the dross.
Grief is not to be assuaged by the will
Of reason proclaimed from pulpit and hill.
And it there is a mustard seed of truth
In prophet’s words to lady and her youth.
To grieve a little for the pain of all
Helps to assuage the awful hurt and gall
That touches to the bone and to the flesh
And grinds the body and the soul in mesh
Of grief unuttered. So, Beloved, I see
The counsel of the prophet has to be.

19 I uttered once more in her ear,
And said 20 “Do not say that, but let
Yourself be guided and well set
Because of Zion’s troubles met,
And take comfort to your own grief
And for Jerusalem’s relief.
21 “You see that our temple’s destroyed,
The altar thrown down we employed,
Our sanctuary we enjoyed,
22 “Our harp is laid upon the floor,
Our song’s been silenced from the door,
Rejoicing has come to an end,
The flame upon our candlestick
Has been put out, the smoking wick
Has seen the ark plundered to tend
No more our covenant, and our
Holy things in pollution scour,
And the name by which we are called
Has been profaned and we’re appalled,
Our free men have suffered abuse,
Our priests burned to death from their use,
Our Levites taken captive too,
Our virgins defiled in our view,
Our wives raped and our righteous men
Deported to the mines, again
Our children have been cast outside,
Our young men enslaved in their pride,
And our strong men weak to abide.
23 “And, what is more than all, the seal
Of Zion, since she’s now lost the heal
Of all her glory, and has been
Delivered in the hands of sin
Of those who hate us with a grin.
24 “So shake off your great sadness now
And lay the grief from off your brow,
So that the Mighty One may see
You once again and with mercy,
And the Most High may give you rest,
Relief from your troubles unguessed.”

I may not find the thought the temple gone
From Zion with its dead priests makes at dawn
A balm to salve my soul for today’s pain,
As though the gold and silver were my gain.
And yet I understand proportion must
Be all the comfort I have in the dust.
One life indeed bandies eternity
And seems enough to grant in sorrow’s plea,
And yet compared to thousands in degree,
The weight of grief is measureless to see.
There stands a daily sorrow for the loss
Of labour and of silver at the toss,
And there at least the balm’s enough and great
To bring me to the supper table late.

25 As I was speaking with her there,
All of a sudden her face fair
Shone brightly and her countenance
Flashed like the lightning in a dance,
So that for fear I did not dare
Come near her and my heart beware.
As I was wondering at the thing,
26 She gave a fearsome cry to ring
So that the earth shook at the sound.
27 And I looked, and see, all around
The woman was not to be found,
But there was a great city set,
And a place of foundations met.
Then I was frightened, cried aloud,
And said 28 “Where is the angel bowed
Uriel, who came to me first?
For it was he who unrehearsed
Brought me to this strange state of things
Till I finish in destroyings
And my prayer end in reproachings.”

For most men cities after their refrain
Of sorrow and of pushing on the pain
Turn into women or equivalent,
Called “her” with some affection for the bent.
But Ezra meets a woman in the wood
And comforts her as best he knows or should,
And to amazement finds her fast renown
To be a city from the toe to crown.
Beloved, I find no city, no, nor thought
Of Zion or of Gerizim in plot,
But in the wildish vision of the trees
That cover all the islands that I please
I find in solitude the heavenly dare
That would be city if it were somewhere.

29 As I was speaking these words, see,
The angel who had come to me
At first came back to me, and he
Gazed on me, 30 and indeed, I lay
There like a dead man gone astray
Without a thought in mind to pray.
Then he took hold of my right hand
And gave me strength and made me stand,
And said to me, 31 “What’s wrong with you?
And why do you take stonished view?
Why is your cogitations’ thought
In such distress as though unwrought?”
32 I said “Since you’ve forsaken me!
I did as you commanded me
And went out in the field, and see,
I found what I cannot explain.”
33 He told me, “Stand up like a man,
And I’ll explain to you the plan.”
34 I said “Speak, sir, but do not leave
Me, lest I die early and grieve.
35 “For I’ve seen what I did not know,
And I have heard a hidden show.
36 “Or is my mental state awry
And is my soul dreaming the sky?
37 “So now I beg you give your slave
An explanation of the grave
And gross vision that you engrave.”

I guess that I too would swoon if I saw
A lady turn to city in my craw
And change her dress and scarf for shining wall
And hands and feet for palaces and tall
Against the ruined sky without a stain
Its minarets in colours stark and plain.
No doubt when Ezra stopped to get his breath
He though instead of vision to meet death.
Beloved, the vision that I see today
Is filled with glory in its humble way,
And finds me breathless with the light and cloud,
With murmurings of evensongs aloud,
With rosaries of Psalms until I’m clad
In painted dreams of forests and the glad.

38 He answered me and said “Hear me
And I will tell you faithfully
The things you fear, for the Most High
Has shown you secrets passing by.
39 “For He has seen your righteousness,
And that you oft in sorrow dress
For your folk and mourn in duress
For Zion in her great distress.
40 “So this is what the vision means.
41 “The woman who came on the scenes
A moment ago, whom you saw
Grieving and you lend helping paw,
42 “But you can see no longer now
In woman’s form, but must allow
Is now a city set for you,
43 “And as for her telling you that
Misfortune of the son she gat,
This is the meaning shown out flat.
44 “This woman you saw, whom you now
Find a set city on the brow
Is Zion. 45 “And her telling how
She was childless for thirty years,
Is because three thousand years’ tears
Were in the world before there came
Any offering upon her flame.

A year for one hundred years is a rate
Unknown to the interpreters of late
Of Daniel and of Revelation where
A day is for a year among the fair.
The second book of Esdras is the key
To many things unthought of in the spree
Of reading homely Bible prophecy.
Beloved, I hardly dare to take a drink
Of prophecies in wonders at the brink,
Knowing the lengths the human mind can go
Jumping to false conclusions in a row.
And yet the burning words begin to glow
Seducing with their scent of burning pile
Of incense wood beyond my normal guile.

46 “And after three thousand years’ claim
Solomon built the city’s name,
And offered offerings, then it came
This childless woman bore a son.
47 “And for her telling how she’d done
To care for him, that was the time
Of biding in Jerusalayim.
48 “And for her telling you, ‘When my
Son entered bridal room to die,’
And such misfortune fell on her,
That was destruction to occur
Upon Jerusalem. 49 “And see,
You saw her likeness, and how she
Mourned for her son, and you began
To comfort her under the scan.

Misfortune of the brave when empires dawned
Upon the world and left the fully brawned
Who had ruled tiny princedoms of the fawned
Beneath the knuckles of the royal pawned
Is that of an only son whose death brings
The end to dreams of weddings and such things.
Misfortune of the brave’s foundation wrought
By Nebuchanezzar in kingly plot,
Inventing a new thing, though Egypt knew
The rising of the Nile and spritely crew
Before such empires came to make their mark.
So now we cannot live without the shark.
And yet the tragedy is still laid bare
In all that empires do today in dare.

50 “And now the Most High, seeing you
Are grieved at heart to see the view
Of her distress, has now shown you
The splendour of her glory due,
51 “That’s why I told you to remain
In the field where no house held gain.
52 “I knew the Most High would reveal
These things to you. 53 “So in appeal
I had you go into the field
Where there was no house built to yield,
54 “For work of no man’s hand could stay
In the Most High’s town’s light of day.
55 “So do not be afraid, and do
Not let your heart tremble to view,
But go in and see glory there,
The size of the building and rare,
As far as your eyes can and dare,
56 “And after that you’ll hear as much
As your ears can bear of the touch.
57 “For you are more blessed than the crowd,
And you have been called out aloud
Before the Most High, as but few
Have been of all the earthly crew.
58 “But stay here till tomorrow night,
59 “And the Most High will show you right
In those dream visions what Most High
Will do to those who live to sigh
Upon earth in the last days.”
So I slept that night and the phase
Of that to follow, by His ways.

I wonder what things I might see if I
Remained out in the field beneath the sky
In memory of flowers and on my tongue
The taste of frantic juices that were wrung
From gladogenic stem and leaf and fruit.
I wonder what things I might hear for flute.
The righteousness of Ezra or the point
Of substances he got from burning joint,
It does not matter now, the thing is done.
The vision is appointed and I run
To catch the fragrance of the prophecy
Before the sun goes down upon the lea.
I quaff the juice of peony in my dreams
And wake up to the joy of what it seems.

2 ESDRAS 11

1 The second night I had a dream,
And see, there rose up as I deem
An eagle from the sea, and he
Had twelve plumed wings and heads to three.
2 I looked forsooth to see him spread
His wings over all the earth fed,
And all the winds of heaven blew where
The clouds surrounded his repair.
3 I looked, and out of his wings grew
Wings opposite, though small in view.
4 His heads were quiet, but the one
In the central place had outdone
The others in size, while it stayed
Also at rest and had not played.
5 I saw the eagle fly on wing
To rule the earth and everything.
6 I saw all things beneath the ring
Of sky submitted to his will,
And no one spoke against his bill,
Not even a mouse upon the hill.
7 I looked to see the eagle rose
Upon his talons, and he chose
Command to his wings taught to mime,
8 “Do not all watch at the same time,
Let each one slumber in his place,
And take his turn upon the race,
9 And let the heads stay till the end,
And so to meet both foe and friend.”

The eagle is the fourth beast once described
By Daniel in the chapter he imbibed,
The seventh in the line of lessons taught
In Babylon and in the court it wrought.
The wings and heads are not the ten horns that
Gathered where Daniel dreamed and came and sat,
But are the series of the kings that grew
Upon Mount Zion with unholy crew.
Twelve kings are followed in a line by three
Heads taking over what the wings may see.
Beloved, I seek the meaning of the tale,
And wonder at what powers came to prevail
And so oppress the people of the book,
The ones who were still righteous in their nook.

10 I looked and found the voice did not
Come from his heads, but from the drought
Of his body. 11 And so I sought
To count his wings, and for their plot
Were eight all standing in their lot.
12 I looked indeed on the right side
One wing arose, and reigned to bide
On all the earth. 13 And while it reigned
It came at last to end unfeigned
And disappeared, so that its place
Was not seen anymore in trace.
Then the next wing arose and reigned,
And it ruled long and was ingrained.

With the fourth beast the Grecian rule would end
And Roman rule started to rise and fend.
The first wing is the first one come from Rome
To desecrate Jerusalem and home.
The first wing is Antipater who gave
His loyalty to Rome although the slave
Of Idumea, and whose faithful son,
Herod the great was the second wing one
To guide the eagle Rome through every feat
Of power and fast oppression by elite.
Herod the Great reigned long for Rome and so
Became the winged one of the fatal show
That sparked the days of wealful, wrathly woe
So like all time since in the afterglow.

14 Its reign came also to an end,
And disappeared like its first friend.
15 Indeed a voice was heard to say
16 “Hear me, you who have ruled the earth
All this time, I proclaim this worth
Before you disappear in dearth.
17 “After your time no one shall rule
As long as you, not half the school.”
18 Then the third wing raised itself up,
And held the rule like former tup,
Until it also disappeared.
19 It went so with all the wings geared,
They held sway each in turn and then
They never rose in sight again.
20 I saw in due course wings that rose
On the right side in power’s pose.
Some ruled and quickly disappeared,
21 And others rose, but failed and feared.

The wings on the right side are clearly seen
In the dynasty of Herodians keen:
Antipater, Herod the Great and then
Ten years of Archelaus of all men,
Followed by Philip I in kingdom’s half,
And reunited in the awful gaff
Of first Aggrippa for a year or three,
And last Apprippa II to follow spree.
The other wings and heads are Legates drawn
To camp on old Jerusalem’s bare lawn
Until the days of Syria kept in store
With Palestina waiting at the door
Should find the chargers from the Arab shore
Rushing upon the hopes shattered in score.

22 And after this I looked and saw
The twelve wings and the little claw
Of two wings disappeared like straw,
23 Till naught remained on eagle’s form
Except the three heads resting warm
And the six little wings from storm.
24 I looked two little wings remove
From the six and stay under groove
Of the head set on the right side,
But the four others would abide.
25 I saw indeed these little wings
Planned to set themselves up as kings.
26 While I gazed one was set up, but
Suddenly fell where it was shut.
27 The second also rose to fame,
And disappeared without a name.
28 The two left by planned they should rule
Together over wise and fool.
29 While they were planning, see, one head
Of those that have quietly spread,
The middle one, woke up as it
Was bigger than the others fit.
30 I saw it join the other two
Together 31 and indeed, the crew
Consumed the two small wings in view
That planned to rule the place, just two.

The plot of Legates met in wings and heads
Is now obscure, because the news that spreads
Of names and dates in those days are but few,
Though six before Bar Kokhba are known true.
Vespasian, Titus, Domitian too
Are Caesars leading on the wicked crew,
And two small wings continue in the view:
Nerva, a weakened wing in worldly sight,
Followed by Trajan, hero in the right
Of worldly guess and pomp, and yet in faith
A shadow idol and a pagan wraith.
Beloved, the wicked reader laughs to find
The prophecy is unfulfilled and blind,
Yet spirit is true though flesh is confined.

32 This head took over the whole earth,
Oppressing its dwellers for mirth,
With greater power on all beside
Than the wings gone before to hide.
33 And after this I looked, indeed,
The middle head had gone to seed
Just as the wings before had done.
34 But two heads still stayed on the run,
And they reigned over all the earth
And its inhabitants in berth.
35 I saw the head on the right side
Eat up the left one in its tide.

The emperors follow one after one
Until the ruling of the earth is done.
I turn away from all the farce and play,
The tinsel and the ground of iron and clay,
And find the molten platform under sun
Where lightning struck the mountain and You won,
Beloved, to give the tables of the law
To every soul that comes to stand in awe.
The heads and wings beat feebly on the shore
Of restless seas of peoples to deplore,
But I look toward the fountain gone before,
The mountain of Your speaking to my soul.
Beloved, I take no teaching of my own,
The slippery way, but only Your bright throne.

36 I heard a voice saying to me,
“Look in front and say what you see.”
37 I saw a beast like lion roused
Out of the forest, roaring toused,
And I heard him speak with the voice
Of a man to the eagle choice,
Saying 38 “Hear and I’ll speak to you.
The Most High says this thing to you,
39 ‘Are you not the one that remains
Of the four beasts I gave the reins
In My world, so the end of times
Might come through them in ways and mimes?
40 “You, the fourth that has come, have set
Down all the beasts that have been met
Before, and you have held such sway
Over the world in terror’s way,
And over all the earth with grief
Of your oppression sans relief,
Living so long upon the earth
In your deceit for all you’re worth.
41 “You’ve judged the earth, but not with truth,
42 “You have afflicted and with ruth
The meek and injured those at peace,
You’ve hated those who do not fleece
The truth, and have loved liars’ ways,
You have destroyed the dwellings’ maze
Of those who brought forth fruit, and laid
Low walls of those who did no raid.
43 “And so your insolence has come
Up before the Most High in sum,
And your pride to the Mighty One.
44 “And the Most High has looked and spun
Upon His times, and see, they’re done,
His ages complete under sun!
45 “So you will surely disappear,
You eagle, and your wings of fear,
And your most evil little wings,
And your malicious heads, in rings
Your wicked claws and worthless maws,
46 “So that the whole earth, freed from ill
Of your violence out to spill,
May be refreshed and find relief,
And hope for judgment from their grief
And mercy from Creator’s lief.’”

The churches and the veiling kingdom’s come
One after another to sell their rum,
And hear: You’ve judged the earth, but not with truth,
And wily corrupted all the world’s youth
To commit with bare hand in wicked way
Their violence on poor and widow’s stay.
The governments of men with written laws
Are bloody on their teeth and tongues and claws,
And every righteous leader that’s been sent
Is downed by his iniquity full-rent.
Beloved, I turn to You, and find Your peace
In tabernacles not seen for release,
In knowledge that You only rule the day
And cast the faith of martyrs out to hay.

2 ESDRAS 12

1 While the lion was saying these
Words to the eagle not to please,
I looked, 2 and indeed, the last head
Remaining disappeared instead.
And the two wings that had gone over
To it arose and set up rover
To rule, and their reign was one brief
And full of trouble sans relief.
3 And I looked, and behold, they too
Had disappeared and gone from view,
The eagle’s entire body burned,
While earth was terrified and spurned.
Then I woke up in troubled mind
And in great fear and said in kind
To my spirit, 4 “Indeed, you’ve brought
This on me, because you search out
The ways of the Most High no doubt.
5 Indeed, I’m still weary in mind
And very weak in spirit’s kind,
And not even a little strength
Is left in me, because at length
The great fear with which I have been
Terrified this night is in bin.
6 So I will now beseech the Most
High that He may give strength to boast
And keep me to the end and toast.”

The eagle is spent and destroyed at last
At Bar Kokhba’s famed stand before the blast.
Domitian’s downed and so Nerva the weak
And Trajan the last Roman come to speak.
The empire’s up in flames, destroyed in all
Its own destruction before royal ball.
The truth is vindicated in the roar
Of messianic fervour at the door.
The way and life of everlasting joy
Is set up and immoveable to ploy
In the city celestial that appeared
At the call of faith Kokhba engineered.
Beloved, I stand beneath the banner still
Invisible, but clearly in Your will.

7 And I said, “O sovereign Lord, if
I’ve found grace in Your sight not stiff,
And been accounted righteous here
Before You beyond others’ tier,
And if my prayer’s before Your face,
8 Strengthen me and show me in grace,
Your servant, the meaning of this
Awful vision, though one of bliss,
To comfort my soul with a kiss.
9 For You’ve judged me worthy to see
The end of times and their last fee.”
10 He said to me, “This is the thing
This vision you’ve seen means on wing.
11 The eagle you saw coming up
From the sea is the fourth like tup
Kingdom which appeared in a sight
To your brother Daniel and wight.
12 But it was not made clear to him
In the detail I bring you trim.
13 Indeed, the days are coming when
A kingdom shall rise upon men,
And it shall be more awful than
All the kingdoms before in plan.
14 And twelve kings shall reign in it, one
After another till they’re done.

I praise You, my Beloved, the wings are clipped
And Rome is dead as Babylon, Egypt,
And all the fight and fire, the martyrdom,
The killing and the smoke, the veils in sum,
Are merely mirrors and reflections low
And failing despite all the empty glow
Of honour and of circumstance for show.
Reality is in the still small voice,
Reciting of Your word in joy and choice,
While illusion’s democracy is forced
Into the bright judgement, fallen, divorced.
Beloved, I smile at Roman gunned and horsed,
Well-tanked and banked the armies fly the sky
Until the roar of silence strike them by.

15 But the second that is to reign
Shall hold sway for a longer pain
Than any other of the twelve.
16 This is the meaning of the twelve
Wings which you saw. 17 As for your hearing
A voice that spoke, come not in clearing
Of eagle’s heads but from the middle
Of his form, here’s the gist of riddle.
18 In middle of that kingdom’s time
Great conflicts shall come up and climb,
And it shall be about to fall,
And yet it shall not hit the wall,
But once more have its former power.
19 As for your seeing eight small wings
Holding to his wings for an hour,
This is the meaning of those things.
20 Eight kings shall rise in it, whose reigns
Shall be short and years swift in pains,
21 And two of them shall fail amid
The coming of the era’s bid,
And four shall be kept for the time
When its end comes in sight and rhyme,
But two shall be kept till the end.
22 As for your seeing three heads there
At rest, this is the meaning fair.
23 In its last days the Most High will
Raise up three kings upon the hill,
And they shall renew many things
In it, and rule the earth like kings
24 And its inhabitants with hand
More oppressive than all the band
Before them, and that’s why they’re called
The heads of the eagle appalled.

Let me not list atrocities, Beloved,
Committed by the heads of the ungloved!
Let their names not pass my lips now again,
I have already spoken of the men.
The eagle and the dragon from its den
Go out to spew upon the earth both fire
And every pest that men know to desire.
But when they’ve done their worst, You still abide
The God of those who turn away and hide
In closet to repeat the noble prayer
And breathe the freshness of Your law like air.
Beloved, do not breathe out another word
To name the cursed, but scatter like the turd,
And climb again Your divine, golden stair.

25 For it is they who shall sum up
His wickedness poured out in cup
And carry out his last deeds stalled.
26 As for your seeing that the large
Head disappeared, one of the charge
Of kings shall die in his bed, yet
In agonies and anguish set.
27 But as for the two who remained,
The sword shall consume them as stained.
28 For the sword of one shall devour
Him who was with him for an hour,
But he also shall fall by sword
In the last days as his reward.
29 As for your seeing two small wings
Pass over to the head which sings
Upon the right side, 30 that means this.
It is these whom the Most High’s kept
For eagle’s end and without miss,
This was the reign which many wept
In trouble though brief as you hiss.
31 As for the lion whom you saw
Rousing up from the forest maw
And roaring and speaking to chide
The eagle for unrighteous hide,
And as for all his words you’ve heard,
32 This is Messiah whom the word
Of Most High’s kept till end of days,
Who will rise from the children’s praise
Of David, and will come and speak
To them, He will denounce their weak
Ungodliness and wickedness,
And cast up before their address
The actions they ought to confess.

Messiah’s words in sharpened sword addressed
Came already in burning fire and dressed
In stunning white to John upon the isle
In a sea gathered around him for guile.
Messiah’s words flew from the judgement seat
And guided every eye of the elite
Elect to know that Your throne is above
The eagle’s and the dragon’s without love
For violence and for the blood-stained shore.
All humankind may come to lap the gore,
But Your Messiah speaks the truth and bears
The weight with joy of human burden cares.
Beloved, I praise Messiah at the reach
Of Golgotha, Massada, Kokhba’s peach.

33 First He will set them living there
Before His judgment seat to share
Reproof, and then He’ll destroy them.
34 But he’ll deliver in the hem
Of His mercy the remnant gem
Of my folk, those who have been saved
Throughout my borders and engraved,
And He will make them joyful too
Until the end comes, the day due
Of judgment, of which I told you
At the beginning as is true.
35 This is the dream that you saw, and
This is its meaning set at hand.
36 And only you were worthy guy
To learn this secret of Most High.
37 Therefore write all of these things that
You’ve seen in a book, and put at
A secret place, 38 and you shall teach
Them to the wise among your reach,
Whose hearts you know can comprehend
And keep these secrets till the end.

They say the book was written in the time
Of Domitian and later at the crime
Of Christian plagiarizers added to,
The chapters at beginning and the two
At end to satisfy the Christian view.
They say the book was written by a Jew
To find a comfort for the city taxed
And flattened by the tenth legion and axed.
Be that as may, Beloved, I know the sound
Of prophecy when uttered on the ground,
And see beyond pseudepigraphic mound
To find the sweet bites of Your word and true.
The law is never spoken to be new.
I hear it here and now, taste in the stew.

39 But wait here seven days more, so
That the Most High may come to show
You yet what things are on the go.”
And so he left me here below.
40 When all the folk heard seven days
Had past and I’d not bent my ways
Back to the town, they all came out
Together from least to the stout,
And coming to me spoke to me
And said 41 “How have we so made free
To offend you, what harm have we
Done you, that you’ve forsaken us
And sit in this place barbarous?
42 “Of all the prophets you alone
Are left to us upon the stone,
A cluster of grapes from the catch,
Lighting a dark place just one match,
And like a haven for a ship
Saved from a storm out of the slip.
43 “Are not the evils come on us
Sufficient to the cumulous?
44 “Therefore if you forsake us, how
Much better it would have been now
For us if we also had been
Consumed in Zion’s burning din!
45 “For we’re no better than those who
Died there among the lost and true.”
And they wept with a loud voice too.

I understand the weeping and the note
Of chiding a sweet prophet, one of note.
There has not been a prophet on the sand
Not since Muhammad bit the iron band.
If any felt neglected on the strand
Of old Jerusalem, upon the rock
Swept clean of temple and the temple stock,
I understand the hopeful hale and cry,
The waiting for the prophet to come by.
And yet I wonder why the prophet’s view
Is always hidden from the comely crew,
Since You were wont to make a fair claim true,
And spoke on Sinai with loud words as due.
I look up at the empty and blue sky.

Then I answered them and I said
46 “Take courage, O Israel well bred,
And do not sorrow, Jacob’s house,
47 “For the Most High has man and spouse
In His remembrance, Mighty One
Has not forgotten you when done.
48 “As for me, I’ve neither forsaken
You nor withdrawn from you when shaken,
But I have come here just to pray
For Zion’s desolation’s way,
And to seek mercy on account
Of sanctuary’s humble mount.
49 “Now go every one to his house,
And after these days like a mouse
I’ll come to you and give account.”
50 So the folk went into the city,
As I told them to do for pity.
51 But I sat in the field seven days,
As the angel had ordered ways,
And I ate only of the flowers
That grew upon the meadow bowers,
And my meat was of herbs and rue
During those days both long and few.

Zion is desolate of brick and stone,
It’s just as barren now as for the throne
Of Domitian upon the shrunken wall.
The city is forsaken at the gall.
The Zion that I know is one above,
One without bloodshed, one enthroned in love.
I tread its golden street like feeding dove
And pick its sweetest morsels with red feet
And eye of innocence at my retreat.
I find it in the barren field where I
Eat chickweed with a beak too sharp to ply,
And touch it’s gleaming fruit upon the tree
Of life with pecks a-plenty and with glee.
No one can take my town away from me.

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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