WISDOM CHAPTER 1 - 9

WISDOM

Though many men of faith in times gone past
Relate Wisdom to Solomon’s repast,
The truth is that the book was written late
In the fine Greek of Hellenizing state.
If it is not found in the Tanakh held
By Jew and Karaite in light dispelled
I trow it is because its language taught
Is not the sweet Hebrew it should have caught.

But wisdom is its name and to its fame
It is wise in the way it shows the flame
Of humankind to be ephemeral,
The high effects of wisdom on the mall,
And why idolatry is evil sal.
No better Trinity is there in claim.

WISDOM 1

1 Love justice, rulers of the earth,
Consider YHWH with upright worth,
And seek Him with a sincere heart,
2 Because He’s found by those who part
From tempting Him, and shows Himself
To those who do not trust in elf.
3 For perverse thoughts separate men
From Ælohim, and His power when
It’s tested, it convicts the foolish,
4 Because wisdom will not be schoolish
To enter a deceitful soul,
Nor live in a body in toll
Of sin’s slavery. 5 For a holy
And disciplined spirit will flee
From deceit, and will rise and part
From foolish thoughts, and will from start
Be ashamed at unjust approach.
6 For wisdom is a kindly coach,
But will not free a blasphemer
From the guilt that his words incur,
Because Ælohim is witness
Of his inmost feelings’ address,
A true observer of his heart,
And hearer of his tongue in art.

Beloved, they say I tempt You on the run,
And blaspheme at Your name as though in fun,
And yet I do not seek You, do not search,
Because I always find You on my perch,
Near as my breath, near as the artery
That pumps blood to my brain in scatter-free.
I do not search and find: I can’t break free
Of the presence divine that follows me.
Only the ones who search to find the Self
Need rummage on the glowing cosmic shelf.
The kind who have no self but You alone
Seek not, because they are at heroed bone,
Immoveable from before Your sleek throne.
Beloved, I step into eternity.

7 Because the Spirit of YHWH’s filled
The earth, and what holds all things stilled
Knows what is said, 8 therefore no one
Who speaks unrighteousness when done
Escapes note of justice but it
Will punish when is passes fit.
9 Examination of the plans
Of wicked men stand as it scans,
And record of his words will come
Up before YHWH, convicting bum
For his unlawful works, 10 because
A jealous ear hears every clause,
And complaint is heard as it draws.
11 Watch out for idle complaint, keep
Your tongue from slander, there’s no deep
Secret word but has its effect,
And lies destroy the soul elect.
12 Do not invite death by the error
Of your life, nor bring on the terror
By the works of your hands to scare her,
13 Because Ælohim did not make
Death, and He does not delight take
In the death of the living stake.
14 For He created all things so
They might exist and also glow,
And growing things in the world are
Good, and from destruction are far,
And the dominion of Sheol
Is not on the earth or its goal.
15 But righteous deeds can never die.
16 Ungodly men who come to vie
By their works are called into death,
As a friend so they lost their breath,
And made a covenant with him,
Because they fit his party dim.

Slander and plaint are the great foes I see
Around me on the shore and in the lea
Of forest where I walk, but what trips me
Is none of those. But rather the heart bare
As it was once created on the air.
I follow with such lust all that is fair
Beneath the purple pines shining in light
Of red sunset, within the joining sight
Of aspens in their worsted hues contrite.
Beloved, I lay aside the quaint retreat
To slight the sting of ant, the formal beat
Of bumblebee. I lay aside the talk
That criticizes cabbage-fly’s new frock.
I follow with such lust all that is sweet.

WISDOM 2

1 Without good reason they have said
“Brief is our life in sorrow led,
And there’s no cure for man at last,
And none come back from Hades’ blast,
2 Since we were born in hazard’s way,
And after death there is no sway;
The breath of our life’s like a smoke,
And thought just a spark that awoke
By the pulse of our hearts in stroke.
3 When it’s extinguished, into dust
The flesh goes and the spirit must
Dissolve like empty air for crust.
4 Our name will be forgotten soon,
No one remember our works’ tune,
Our life will pass without a trace
Like cloud and be scattered from space
Like mist spoiled by the rays of sun
And overwhelmed with the heat done.
5 For our age is determined like
The passing of a shadow’s strike,
And there’s no coming back from death,
Because it’s sealed up without breath.

It is great wisdom to become aware
That thought is just another form of air.
It is not certain, as pride would maintain,
That human thought is greater and more sane
That what lies on the breath of dog or mouse,
Or that what’s art to me upon the house
Is finer than the tangled web of grief
Devised by rats behind the cellar’s feoff.
Beloved, the ancients realized the truth
That life is little beyond joy of youth
And gone forever after that, unless
You form a new creation from the guess.
Today hardly any faith doubts the way
Of human soul in her eternal sway.

6 “So come and let us take joy in
The pleasures we have without sin,
And use creation to the full
As in youth when we felt the pull.
7 Let us take our fill of fine wine
And odours, and let no bloom’s vine
In spring pass by us with a whine.
8 “Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds
Before they wither on their studs.
9 “Let each of us take part in mirth,
Leave traces of our joy in berth,
For this is our portion on earth.

So far so good, there’s nothing wrong with joy,
And to grasp the day of youth’s happy boy
Is no sin. But I trust experience
To tell me that the ending of no fence
Is the oppression of the righteous soul.
Without the care and warning with the goal
The trampling of the other comes to pass
Without the need of plan set on the glass.
Beloved, while I take part in Gospel mirth
Enjoying every feat from death to birth,
Let me leave off the fine wine and the smell
Of sweetness that would bring the drowsy spell,
And hide from me the core reality
That flits between the branches of the tree.

10 “Let’s oppress the innocent poor,
Nor spare the widow nor look pure
Upon the grey hair of the old.
11 “Let might be right and our hearts bold
To leave the weak out in the cold.
12 “Let’s lie in wait for righteous men,
Because he’s inconvenient then
To us and opposes our works,
He chides us for our sin that shirks
The law and so accuses us
For acting naturally in fuss.
13 “He claims to have knowledge of God,
Calls himself slave of YHWH in pod.
14 “He is reproof even of our thoughts,
15 “The very sight of him distroughts,
Because he lives a different way
To others and he’s strange in dray.
16 “He looks down on us as cheap fools,
Avoids us as in unclean pools,
He calls the end of righteous life
A happy thing and as in strife
Boasts that Ælohim is his father.
17 ”Let us see if his words for bother
Are true, and let us wait and see
How his life will end in the spree,
18 “For if the righteous man’s a slave
Of God, He will help from the grave
And from his adversaries’ glaive.
19 “Let’s test him with insult and torture,
To find out how gentle a scorcher
He is, and try his patience’ breath.
20 Let’s put him to a shameful death,
Since he makes the claim God will save.”

I’m weary with the explanations’ bound
Of why the divine plan and wicked pound
Concur to set oppression on the world.
I turn from the discussion now unfurled
And take up my song of the rosebuds’ share.
I bought a poke of them beneath the air
Of Kuwait’s market place and brought them home
To add to my tea with precious arome.
Beloved, I do not know that rosebuds do
A thing for health or beauty or accrue
Increase of bank account, but still I take
A whiff of the perfume and for Your sake
Retire to duty and to pleasure with
Not only Your presence but rival myth.

21 So they argued, but they were led
Astray, by wicked blindness sped.
22 And they did not know secret aims
Of Ælohim, nor hope in claims
Of holiness, nor see the prize
Laid up for blameless souls in guise,
23 For Ælohim created man
For incorruption, and by plan
Set him within the image of
His own eternity of love,
24 But through the devil’s envy death
Entered the world, and those whose breath
Goes forth to his party all know
By experience the awful show.

The fond belief that man’s Your image here
Caught for admiring glance of fish and deer
Is old enough to be found in this place,
This text joined with the Persian sort of grace,
The Hellenistic weave of thought and power,
The Babylonian perfumes of the hour.
Beloved, I know that man’s not such a trace
Of Your nobility by face or grace,
But just the last piece modestly inset
Within the picture puzzle that we get
With universe displayed on empty screen
Filled with all things, Your image without spleen.
Beloved, I look out from my corner where
Your image rolls in forest, lake and air.

WISDOM 3

1 But the souls of the righteous are
In the hand of Ælohim’s star,
No torment ever touches them.
2 In the eyes of the foolish hem
They seemed to have died, and their fate,
Departure thought affliction’s rate,
3 Their going from us as destruction,
But they’re at peace from all the muction.
4 Though in men’s eyes they felt the lash,
Their hope’s in an immortal stash.
5 For suffering a small thing they’ll find
A great reward, since in the kind
Ælohim proved then and found them
Worthy of Himself as a gem,
6 Gold purified in furnace tried,
And like a sacrificial side
He shall accept them for His pride.

The wicked try to prove their right to rule
By persecuting others with each tool
Of torture they can find, the best refined
Pricking both outward body and the mind
With psychic needles and fleshly combined.
The world is always governed by a fool.
Beloved, I flee from promises of power,
I flee from friends who have a hand and hour
Among the courts and legislatures’ file.
I flee from every man of strength and guile.
The Tao of hopelessness is my retreat,
I trade the victory for small defeat,
And touch the greater treasure and the meat.
There is no waiting for the passing while.

7 When their time comes they will be bright,
Running like sparks through stubble light.
8 They’ll govern nations and rule folks,
And YHWH will reign over their yokes
For ever. 9 Those who trust in Him
Will understand the truth not dim,
The faithful will abide with him
In love, because grace and mercy
Are on His chosen ones, and He
Guards His holy ones faithfully.
10 But the ungodly will receive
The punishment their minds in leave
Deserve, who disregarded men
Of righteousness and rebelled then
Against YHWH, 11 for who will despise
Wisdom and instruction in guise
Is miserable. Their hope is vain,
Their labours shall come to no gain,
Their works are without profit’s bane.
12 Their wives are foolish, children bad,
13 Their offspring are accursed and sad.
Blessed is the barren woman pure,
Who’s not gone in a wicked sure
Union, she will have barren cure
And offspring when Ælohim will
Examine souls and count the bill.

The Bible is a fiery book. I see
How much it divides people into two
Outrageous groups set in respective pew.
My thought is that all people faithfully
Arrange to do by nature as they see,
Some just succeed better than the last crew
Making its way as best it can in view.
Can any man do better than his fee?
Excuses are abundant why all men
Live and dwell in the circumstances that
Weigh on conditions of reality.
Account that You give in Your word again
Is that there are two groups set out on mat:
None have excuse: some sin and some are free.

14 Blessed also is the eunuch whose
Hands have done naught which might accuse,
And who has not devised a thing
Wicked against YHWH and His king,
For special favour will be shown
To him for his faithfulness grown,
And a place of delight in store
In YHWH’s temple inside the door.
15 The fruit of good labours is famed,
The root of understanding claimed
Does not fail. 16 But the children born
Of adulterers grown in scorn
Will not come to maturity,
And offspring of impurity
Will perish. 17 Even if they live
Long they’ll have no honour to give,
And finally their old age will
Be without honour on the hill.
18 If they die young, they’ll have no hope
No consolation, strand or rope,
In the day of decision’s scope.
19 For the end of a wicked score
Is grievous now and ever more.

The length of life tells nothing in its way,
How children fall in two groups scattered bright:
Outside Your grace there are two sets for spite.
Many may live more than the common stay
Above three score and ten, many bear sway,
Sinking in youth before the lowering night.
Much could be told of wealth and power and right
Come to the children of the wicked bay.
Elected for damnation by the fraud
Lingering in their hands from their parents’ skill,
With no desire to change to righteousness,
Among their spawn in regiments they trod
In paths of infamy down to the kill.
Nothing of goodness comes to fix the mess.

WISDOM 4

1 Better than this is childlessness
With virtue, for in memory guess
Of virtue’s immortality,
Because it is known both by men
And Ælohim in His own glen.

Some seek the fickle fame of human thought,
What neighbours find of glory in the plot,
And others bear the burdens and the share
Of hope that some raise them in glory’s snare.
There are a few whose names are known throughout
The crowd of living today with a shout,
And have been known for centuries for weal
Or woe: some wear a jingling silver heel.
Beloved, I seek a better memory,
A fame not based on fickle human scree,
But on the mind and heart that never fails,
The infinite in love above such scales.
Give me, Beloved, immortal fame in You,
Remember my name for the good and true.

2 When it is here, men follow wake,
When it is gone, long for its sake,
It always goes in victory’s crown,
Winner of prizes all hands down.
3 But the prolific offspring from
The ungodly is just a bum,
And none of their bastards take root
Or have firm foundations to boot.
4 If they spring shoots for a short time,
They will fail before the wind’s clime,
Uprooted by the gales in rime.
5 The branches will be broken off
Before they’re grown, their fruit for scoff
Be futile, never ripe to eat,
And good for nothing under feet.
6 For children born of unions made
Unlawful are witnesses paid
Of evil against their parents
When Ælohim tests them for vents.

All born of womankind are useful here
Upon the planet torn with laugh and tear:
The excrement of man as that of beast
Is spread for all plant life in filling feast,
The very air expelled from human lung
Is freshing to the cowslip’s mortal tongue.
Whether of good behaviour or of ill,
The human body is here useful still.
Beloved, I shudder at the craven way
That folk make themselves useless by the bay.
They drop their excrements in water pure,
And mummify their bodies to be sure
They give no single crumb to web of life.
Only my breath contributes without strife.

7 The righteous man, though he die young,
Will be at rest for what he’s sung.
8 Old age is not honoured for time,
Nor measured by count of years prime,
9 But understanding’s men’s grey hair,
And blameless life old age’s share.
10 There was one who pleased Ælohim
And was loved by Him in His dream,
And while he lived with sinners he
Was taken to eternity.
11 He was caught up lest evil change
His understanding or in range
Guile should deceive his soul with strange.
12 Fascination of wickedness
Obscures what is of good address,
Roving desire perverts the mind
Of innocence before the rind.
13 Perfected quickly, he fulfilled
Long years, 14 for his soul was instilled
To please YHWH, therefore he took him
Quickly from wickedness with vim.

I do protest, Beloved, that old age has
No rights untouchable and all that jazz.
There are rights of the human race that are
Not to be daft extinguished like a star,
That need not be won but are due to all,
No matter how they tread sublunar ball.
If Enoch was perfected in his state
Faster than masses that failed to relate,
It does not mean that humanly respect
Is not due to the grey head unelect.
Beloved, I am no greater now as man
Than I was as a child before the span,
And yet I demand the respect that’s due
To everyone sitting on earthly pew.

15 Yet people saw and they did not
Understand, nor take such in plot,
That God’s grace and mercy are with
His elect, and He sets in pith
His guard over His holy ones.
16 The righteous man who died by tons
Condemns the living ungodly,
And youth that’s soon perfected will
Condemn the old age of the swill
Of the unrighteous man truly.
17 For they will see the wise man’s end,
And will not understand or fend
What YHWH purposed for him, and for
What He kept him safe at His door.
18 They will see, and will have contempt
For him, but YHWH will not exempt
Them from His scorn. After this they
Will have dishonoured corpses’ sway,
And an outrage among the dead
For ever, 19 because He with dread
Will dash them speechless to the ground,
And shake them from foundations found,
They will be left barren and dry,
And they will suffer anguish nigh,
And perish will their memory.
20 They will come with dread in their spree
Of sins accounted, and their deeds
Lawless will convict all their needs
To their faces bared in their creeds.

It is no secret that the wealth one’s gained
Does not follow into the grave when stained
With time and earth. The only thing I take
With me beyond the last breath on the make
Is with what goodness I have left the earth,
The character for weal or woe from birth.
The darkened heart too seeks the credit due
More than the gold itself in greedy view.
The true wealth is not what a man has got,
But what he has become within the plot
Of grace or weal. Outrage among the dead
Is only one reflection on the spread
Of actions right or wrong. Beloved, my song
Rises a moment, then I turn from wrong.

WISDOM 5

1 The upright then shall stand in pride
Before those who afflicted snide,
And those who his labours deride.
2 When they see him, they will be shaken
With dread and fear, and will be taken
With surprise at his great salvation.
3 They’ll tell each other in prostration
Of their repentance, and in pain
Of spirit they will groan in bane
And say 4 “This is the man whom we
Once held in derision freely
And made a byword of reproach,
We were fools! We thought his life’s coach
Was insane and his end to be
Without any honour truly.
5 “Why has he been numbered among
The sons of Ælohim and sung?
And why’s his lot among the saints?
6 “So we strayed from truth’s way for plaints,
And light of righteousness did not
Shine on us, and the sun in lot
Did not rise on our dwelling spot.
7 “We took our fill of lawlessness
And destruction for our address,
And we journeyed through trackless waste,
But YHWH’s way we came not to taste.

The regret of the proud oppressor seems
Like sour grapes before the judgement beams.
Reality that presses on my pate
Is not a happy one to see as fate.
Pretence of justice is what wins the day,
And innocence is made to pay and pay.
Outright oppression with an ugly face
Is path of choice, but in the pinch of pace
Pretence will do to cover up the score
Facilitating markets shore to shore.
Beloved, save up the pious hopes and tears,
I tighten belt and lay away my fears,
And meet the awful darkness with a flinch
Perhaps, but without giving them an inch.

8 “What profit’s in our arrogance?
What good is boasted wealth in stance?
9 “All those things vanished in the shade,
And like a rumour on parade,
10 “A ship that sails through billowed wave,
And when it’s gone past to the nave
Remains no trace nor track of keel
Upon the waters for its weal,
11 “Or as, when a bird flies the air,
No evidence of passing there
Is found, the air lashed by the beat
Of its wings and struck in the heat
Of its flight plunging is traversed
By the feathered movement in burst
To leave afterward not a sign
Of its come or go in the line;
12 “Or as, when an arrow is shot
At the bull’s eye, there at the spot
The air divides and comes again
Together, so that no one then
Can find its pathway in the lot.
13 “So we too, from birth ceased to be,
Without a sign of virtue’s fee,
But were consumed and wickedly.”
14 Because hope of ungodly man
Is like chaff driven by the span
Of wind, and like a light hoarfrost
Carried away by storm and tossed,
Dispersed like smoke before the wind,
It passes like remembrance binned
Of guests of just a day then lost.

Quotation of the first Psalm in the chaff
Is thunder blunder with a raucous laugh.
The promise is a sure thing to the one
Who wades and waits in murmuring in fun
The gracious syllables of Your law spun
On Sinai for the comfort of slaves lost
From civilized, good Egypt to be tossed
Upon the burning desert and the way
Where stones attack the feet in spite for pay.
Beloved, I see the smoke before the blaze
On Sinai trouble every eye and craze
The heart to tremble as the sounds roll round
And stop at last upon the sandy ground.
They straighten all the twists set in life’s maze.

15 But righteous ones shall live for ever,
From their reward YHWH will not sever,
The Most High takes care of them ever.
16 So they’ll receive a glorious crown,
A diadem from YHWH’s hand down,
For with His right hand He will cover,
And with His arm He’ll shield and hover.
17 The Lord will take His zeal as His
Whole armour, and will arm all whiz
Of universe against His foes,
18 He’ll wear righteousness for breastplate,
And put justice’ helmet on pate,
19 He’ll take holiness as a shield
Invincible, 20 and will not yield
Stern wrath sharpened and like a sword,
Creation will join like a horde
To fight against the madmen scored.
21 Shafts of lightning fly with true aim,
And leap to the target as flame
From a well-drawn bow in the clouds,
22 And hailstones full of wrath in crowds
Will be hurled as from catapult,
The waters of the sea tumult
Against them, and rivers will rise
Relentlessly up to the skies,
23 A mighty wind against them too,
Like tempest to winnow the crew.
Lawlessness lays waste the whole earth,
And evil-doing of such worth
Will overturn the rulers’ thrones
And set all humankind to groans.

The problem with apocalyptic hope
Couched in the fiery gusts of unseen rope
Is simply that such prophecy did not
Really rise until heathen hand had wrought
The victory and set Your people low.
Then, only then, did retribution show.
The only way alternative to go
Would be to fight with murderous hand and sword,
But such is now forbidden in adored
Commandments. To keep in the narrow way,
The only thing to do is hope for pay
Beyond the veil of death and destitution
And find in hopeless hope a restitution.
That’s why I still cling to the feeble ray.

WISDOM 6

1 Listen now, kings, and understand,
Learn, O judges of all earth’s land.
2 Give ear, you that rule multitudes,
And boast of many nations’ broods.
3 For your dominion’s granted you
From YHWH, and your sovereignty too
From the Most High, who will search out
Your works and inquire of your doubt.
4 Because as servants of His reign
You did not rule rightly for gain,
Nor keep the law, nor walk by will
Of Ælohim, 5 he will come still
Upon you terribly and quick,
Because severe judgment falls slick
On those in high places and thrones.
6 For the lowliest man for groans
May be pardoned in mercy, but
Mighty men will be straightly shut.

Beloved, it seems You are an emperor,
A great king with underlings by the score,
And some are angel messengers that pace
The universe to execute Your grace.
And others are the men on earthly thrones,
The ones who disobey You in these zones
Of violence and crass instead of wealth
Of wisdom, men who thrive on gutting stealth.
Beloved, the underling’s responsible
To overlord, but overlord in full
Must make good what his servants do in hate.
Beloved, You are responsible for state.
I’m not the guilty one in my pawn’s rate:
I accept Your apologies in rate.

7 For YHWH of all will not stand in
Awe of any one, nor let win
Deferring to greatness, since He
Himself made both small and great free,
And He takes thought for all alike.
8 But strict inquiry is in strike
For the mighty. 9 To you then, O
Monarchs, my words directed go,
That you may learn wisdom and not
Transgress. 10 For they will be made holy
Who observe holy things as lowly,
And those who have been taught the share,
Will find a defence in them there.
11 Therefore set your desire upon
My words, long for them, and be drawn
Into instruction eve and dawn.
12 Wisdom is radiant and unfading,
And she is easily parading
Before those who love her, and found
By those who seek her in the round.

I thank You, my Beloved, for promising
Investigation of the oppressing
That human rulers and their minions do.
I’m counting on Your justice in the pew.
But while I wait for justice here in grace,
I pray light illuminating Your face
Shall lead me gently in the path to know
Your law and do it despite all the show
Of evil and hypocrisy that go
Around the market and cathedral door.
Give me of righteousness a little more,
A scoop of mercy that will make more sweet
The product of my busy hands and feet.
Beloved, I seek You with unflagging wing.

13 She hastens to make herself known
To those who desire her alone.
14 He who gets up early to look
For her will have no hard task’s brook,
For he will find her sitting where
He comes out of his house for air.
15 To concentrate one’s thoughts on her
Is right understanding to stir,
And the one who’s watchful for her
Will leave off soon anxiety,
16 Because she goes around to see
Who is worthy of her, and she
Is gracious to appear to them
In their paths, and meets them for gem
In every thought and faithfully.
17 The start of wisdom is the thirst
To be instructed and not cursed,
And hope for teaching is her love,
18 And love of her is hand in glove
To keep her laws and to give heed
To her laws is assurance’ creed
Of life everlasting indeed.

The fame of sin original is that
It’s found in heart and marrow and the fat
And cannot be forsaken, though men try,
But guards the gate and lets wickedness vie.
But closer to the human heart and mind
Is wisdom, if but sought a while in kind.
The willingness to seek wisdom suffices
To bring her out in triumph over vices.
As soon as the man looks about him where
He sits beside the gates, she flies in air
And perches on the throne of inner heart,
And makes all a man does and thinks an art.
It does not take decades of study and
Effort, but only thirst for her to stand.

19 And everlasting life brings one
Near to Ælohim when it’s won,
20 So the desire for wisdom leads
To a kingdom. 21 So if the beads
Of thrones and sceptres tempt your eye,
O monarch that over folk vie,
Honour wisdom so you may reign
For ever and ever in gain.
22 I’ll tell you what wisdom is and
How she came to be, and in band
I will hide no secrets from you,
But I will trace her course in view
From start of creation, and make
Knowledge of her clear in the wake,
And I will not pass by the truth,
23 Neither will I travel forsooth
Along with vain jealousy’s eye,
For envy does not dwell long by
Wisdom. 24 A multitude of wise
Men is the salvation in guise
Of the world, a sensible king
Is his people’s stabilizing.
25 And so be taught now by my words,
And you will profit above sherds.

The path that begins with wisdom goes on
To keeping of Your law in love to spawn
Eternal life, and that life is Your own
And found only beneath Your sovereign throne.
I lay hold on life lusting for its bill
And find that You are there, near me to fill
My paunch with good things of creation’s fat,
The glories of truth and justice on mat.
Beloved, if I am to be taught by what
You speak, I cannot turn away or shut
My ear from Sinai’s whispers and the sound
Of thunder pealing on the barren ground.
Instead I turn my gaze toward the light
And flee the darkness of the wicked night.

WISDOM 7

1 I also am mortal, like all
Men, a descendant in the stall
Of the first-formed child on earth’s ball,
And in the womb of mother I
Was moulded into flesh, 2 to vie
Within the period of ten moons,
Compacted with blood, from the runes
Of a man and the pleasure croons
Of marriage. 3 And when I was born,
I began to breathe air by horn,
And fell upon the kindred earth,
And my first sound was a cry’s dearth,
Like that of all at hour of birth.
4 I was carefully nursed and wrapped.
5 For no king alive has been tapped
Otherwise, 6 there is for all men
One start of life, a common den.

Today we say nine months are hidden way
From the conception to joyous birthday.
Wisdom counts no doubt that conception stands
Upon the full moon and that’s why its bands
Include the days of ten months lunar’s score
Before the babe begins to knock on door.
All those alive by nature sing that tune,
Though not all nurse at teats to hear the croon.
Beloved, the first commandment of the plot
Commends to humankind their common lot
By saying and by showing You are one,
And there’s no God but You under the sun.
Despite the artificial walls men make
Between the races, cultures and the stake.

7 So I prayed, and got understanding,
I called on Ælohim demanding,
And wisdom’s spirit came on me.
8 I preferred her to royalty,
And counted wealth as nothing in
Comparison to wisdom’s skin.
9 I did not equate her in price
With any gem of worth and nice,
Because all gold is only sand
Compared with her, and silver band
Worth less than clay before her stand.
10 I loved her more than health and beauty,
And chose to have her for my duty
Rather than light, because her ray
Never ceases from day to day.

The choice is often between wisdom and
Wealth in the eyes of stealthy, thieving band.
One can have gold and power and rubies’ ray
Without the light of understanding’s sway,
Or then relinquish all the fun and pay
And take the yoke of wisdom in its day,
And suckle at her breast of poverty.
There’s hardly an exception in the spree.
Good Solomon was wise and wealthy too,
The good book says, and so I guess it’s true.
But he sought wisdom instead of his riches
And that’s why was not thrown into the ditches.
It takes stupidity to put more on
Your plate than you can eat: good sense is gone.

11 All good things came to me along
With her, and in her hands belong
Untold wealth. 12 I rejoiced in them
All, because wisdom will lead them,
But I knew not she was their mother.
13 I learned without guile of the other
And I give without keeping back;
I do not hide her wealth in stack,
14 For it’s unfailing treasure for
Men, those who get it have in store
The friendship of Ælohim, and
Commendation from teaching’s hand.

How many who have knowledge give the best
Without the pay of siller in the chest?
The Sunday school teacher’s the only one
In the system we settle under sun.
But rarely does that auntie or the man
Who functions in the pew as functions can
Dispense wisdom to one and all freely.
More often such are hardly more ably
Endowed with wisdom than the priestly crowd
That skims cream wallets while praying out loud
The mega-church has make the humble task
Of es es teacher a nostalgic bask
In memories bane. Beloved, I do not ask
For more than that when I come into shroud.

15 May Ælohim grant that I speak
With judgement and have thought in peak
Worthy of what I have received,
For He’s the guide I have believed
Even of wisdom and the wise.
16 For we and what our words devise
Are in His hand, and as are all
Understanding and skill in call.
17 For it is He who gave to me
Unerring knowledge of what be,
To know the structure of the world
And all the elements unfurled,
18 The start and finish of the times,
Their core and alternations’ climes,
And solstices and seasons’ change,
19 The cycles of the year in range,
And constellations of the stars,
20 The natures of the beasts and bars
Of the wild things, the powers that tend
To spirits and reasonings’ end
Of humankind, varieties
Of plants with virtues by degrees
Of roots, 21 I learned both what is hidden
And what is revealed and unbidden,
22 For wisdom, former of all things,
Taught me. For in her there are wings
Intelligent, holy, unique,
Manifold, subtle, mobile, chic
And clear, unpolluted, distinct,
Invulnerable, loving the linked
Good, keen, and irresistible,
23 Beneficent, humane, and full
Of steadfastness, sure, free from fear,
All-powerful, seeing all near
And far, and penetrating through
All spirits that are wise and true
And subtle and pure in their view.

The Oriental way of churning out
The sciences along with wisdom’s clout
Seems strange to those today after the whine
Of nomenclature on the science vine.
The poet thinks that You, Beloved, revealed
The pathway of the universe unsealed,
While now empirical approach crowds out
Awareness that You speak in a loud shout.
You are, Beloved, ultimate Real in store,
And as such my experiment in lore
Is nothing but a tugging at Your sleeve.
The Oriental’s right, I do believe.
The sacred is a science, no reprieve,
And finding is a searching at the door.

24 For wisdom is more mobile than
Any motion, because her span
Of purity pervades and goes
Through all things set up in their rows.
25 For she’s breath of Ælohim’s power,
And a pure emanation’s hour
Of the glory of the Almighty,
Therefore nothing defiled and flighty
Gains an entrance into her tower.
26 She reflects the eternal light,
A spotless mirror recondite
Of the working of Ælohim,
An image of His goodness’ beam.
27 Though she is but one, she can do
All things, and while remaining true
In herself, she renews all things,
In every generation’s springs
She passes into holy souls
And makes them friends of God for goals,
And prophets, 28 for Ælohim loves
Nothing so much as the man’s gloves
Who lives with wisdom. 29 For she’s more
Beautiful than the sun in store,
And excels every constellation
Of the stars. Compared with the ration
Of light she’s found to be by far
Better than that, 30 after it comes
The night, but against wisdom’s sums
Evil does not prevail or bar.

The wise man sees that wisdom’s emanation
From You, Beloved, as in medieval nation
Of Islam such philosophy took root
And formed, alas, Andalus’s three boot
Religions to point at the Thomist soot.
Even Whitehead saw it with an elation.
How then does wisdom here at last remain
A constant ray in contrast to the reign
Of day and night reflecting wax and wane?
The static wisdom of this book, I fear,
Is not the root of faith and knowledge sere
That paints about millennial time’s gear.
It is a secret not to disappear
From the perfect man’s heart, despite the bane.

WISDOM 8

1 She reaches mightily from one
End of the earth to other’s run,
And she orders all things well done.
2 I loved her and sought her from youth,
And I desired to take her truth
For my bride, and I fell in love
With her beauty as of a dove.
3 She glorifies her noble birth
By living in Ælohim’s worth,
And YHWH of all loves her. 4 For she
Is an initiate in fee
Of Ælohim’s gnosis and channel
Of His works and she is not banal.
5 If riches are desired in life,
What is richer than wisdom’s fife
That measures all things without strife?
6 If understanding is effective,
Who more than she is an elective
Of what exists? 7 If any one
Loves righteousness, her labours done
Are virtues, for she teaches all
Both self-control and prudence’ wall,
Justice and courage, naught in life
Profits more to men than these rife.

In Ephrata they used to claim the bride
Sophia instead of the fleshly side.
Some fell in fits of lust and came to naught,
Some grew old in the lovely thing they sought.
The efforts to achieve the thing once lost
When Adam was split in two halves embossed
With divine will once in the garden grown
In Ephrata returned to seek the throne.
Beloved, I know the penal load in time
Casts out the airy hopes of reasoned rhyme,
And those who join ascetic rigours last
Till disappointment comes in feeble blast.
I turn to You alone for wisdom’s crown
And turn my back upon the market town.

8 If any lust experience,
She knows the ancient things in sense,
And predicts those things still in store,
She understands mysteries of speech,
And riddles propounded by each,
She has foreknowledge of all signs
And wonders of feasts in their lines.
9 So I intended to take her
To live with me, knowing that her
Good counsel would encourage me
In all cares and anxiety.
10 Because of her I shall have glory
Among the people for my story,
And honour in the elders’ seat,
Though I am still both young and sweet.
11 I shall be found keen in judgement,
And in the sight of rulers sent
I shall be admired for my bent.
12 When I am silent they will wait
For me, and when I speak they’ll rate,
And when I speak at greater length
They’ll cover mouths and lose their strength.
13 And because of her I shall gain
Immortal fame and leave in train
Eternal remembrance to those
Who come after me in their rows.

The fevered quest for immortality,
Philosopher’s stone in the hours wee
Of midnight night work and the share of dawn
At last is still, the hopes at once withdrawn.
Some smile in condescension of the way
The inmates of Ephrata taught their day,
But the replacement evangelical
Of all those mysteries and magical
Is merely mythic burden of the gods
Bourn to the high places with Baal’s sods.
Beloved, no mystery beckons to me,
No resurrecting god-men set me free.
Instead I trust You and Your word alone
From Sinai still repeated by Your throne.

14 I shall govern peoples, and nations
Will be subject to me in stations,
15 Dread monarchs will fear me when they
Hear of me, among the folk’s sway
I shall show myself able and
Courageous in battle to stand.
16 When I enter my house, I’ll find
Rest with her, and so be resigned,
No bitterness, with her no pain,
But with gladness and joy to reign.
17 When I think of these things inside,
And in my mind considered wide,
That hand in hand with wisdom’s guide
There is immortality’s lane,
18 And in friendship with her a strain
Of pure delight, and in the fruit
Of her hands sure riches to boot,
In the experience of her way
Understanding, and in the sway
Of her words renowned in array,
I went about to seek her pay.
19 As a child I was well endowed,
And a good soul was me allowed,
20 Or rather, being good, I came
To enter body without shame.
21 But I perceived that I would not
Possess wisdom unless I got
Her from Ælohim in my plot,
And it was my insight to know
Whose gift she was and whose glow, so
I begged YHWH and besought the show,
With my whole heart I spoke a row.

No bitterness and pain indeed repair
Within the house of wisdom where I share
The seven columns on the open air.
No bitterness and pain are mine since I
Find sweetness and a balm under the sky
Where wisdom dwells in cantillations’ vie.
No glitterness in vain meets me upon
My rounds of slaughterhouses on the dawn,
Nor any idol in my heart withdrawn.
Beloved, I take the shorter path to You,
The instant one that catches mountain’s view,
And where I hear the comfort of Your words
I sweep away the many-coloured sherds
Of all religions and sit in Your pew.

WISDOM 9

1 “O Ælohim of my ancestors
And Lord of mercy to all questers,
Who have made all things by Your word,
2 “And by Your wisdom formed man stirred,
To have dominion over all
The creatures You’ve made on the ball,
3 “And rule the world in holy call
And righteousness, and set judgement
In uprightness of soul as meant,
4 “Give me the wisdom that sits by
Your throne, and do not reject my
Soul from among Your servants here.
5 “For I am your slave and the mere
Son of your maidservant, a man
Weak and brief of life, with a span
Of knowledge small of judgement and
Laws, 6 “for even if one is manned
Perfect among the sons of men,
Yet without wisdom come again
From You he is nothing in view.
7 “You have chosen me in the pew
Of king for Your folk, to be judge
Over Your sons and daughters’ budge.

The text in Wisdom is so late that it
Remembers that Your daughters too are fit.
But then I get impression from the way
The Bible uses words in ideas’ sway
That early times were less in patriarchal
And with the centuries women lost their sparkle.
Perhaps the truth is in all times and places,
Among all tribes and nations and all races,
Some are just in their dealings with all faces,
Whether rich or poor, whether man or wight,
They treat all as though equal in Your sight.
But such are rare, and Wisdom’s Solomon
Appears at last in Scripture to be one.
To find a few more such-like would be fun.

8 “You have commanded me to build
A temple on holy mount filled,
An altar in Your dwelling town,
In pattern given in renown
Of sacred tabernacle worth
In image of the one on earth
You prepared from the start and birth.
9 “With You is wisdom, who knows Your
Works and was present on the shore
When You made the world, and who know
What’s pleasing in Your sight and show,
And what is right as Your laws go.
10 “Send her out from the sacred sky,
And from Your glory’s throne on high
Send her, so she may be with me
And work and so I learn to see
What is Your delight set to be.
11 “She knows and understands all things,
She’ll guide me wisely above kings
In my actions and guard me by
Her glory. 12 “Then my works will fly
Up and acceptable to be,
And I shall judge Your folk justly,
And of my father’s throne worthy.

Some doubt the pattern of the sacred tent
That followed in the desert the cloud sent
Was from eternal, heavenly designs lent.
Such trust in mere matter and time and place
Set down in tribal glories of the race
Is beyond all belief. Denial reigns
And ignorance of what’s behind the stains
Of all things in creation, where You stand.
Not even earth and stone comprise mere land,
But all is taught in its perfection laid
Within the divine mind where You have stayed.
Beloved, I see the temple perfect still
In cantillation of Your word to fill
With incense all the chambers on the hill.

13 “What man can learn Ælohim’s way?
Or who can perceive YHWH’s will’s sway?
14 “The reasoning of mortals lacks,
And our plans fail in all their slacks,
15 “For body perishable weighs
Down the soul, and these earthy stays
Burden the mind in thoughtful sways.
16 “We can hardly guess earthly things,
And what is near in effort springs,
But who has penetrated what
Is up and in the heaven’s shut?
17 “Who has learned Your plans, unless You
Have given wisdom and sent due
Your holy Spirit from on high?
18 “And thus the paths of those that vie
On earth were set right, and men taught
What’s Your delight in wisdom sought.”

The sciences of men thrust in a hand
And eye well magnified to understand
The universe belayed, betrayed, and bought,
But Your design remains hidden though sought.
Reality is larger than the bill
Of anything we touch and try to fill.
Delight I have to see created things,
Wisdom I gain to watch them in their rings,
But what a man can know is just the start
Of all the wonders of the divine heart.
Beloved, I see the black and white and grey,
And praise You for the colours on their way,
Beyond my eye and instrument to stray.

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.

To purchase the books, please go to:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/thomas-mcelwain/the-beloved-and-i-genesis-to-maccabees/paperback/product-20136835.html

http://www.lulu.com/shop/thomas-mcelwain/the-beloved-and-i-job-to-revelation/paperback/product-20050862.html