AMOS CHAPTER 1 - 9

BOOK OF AMOS

The third of twelve prophets appears to be
The harbingers of Hussein in the spree
At Karbela. Amos looks round to find
The tabernacle of David confined
To its oblivion, destruction’s bind.
He prophesies the rise of that fair tent
And in that prophesy the fourth that went
Up living from the blood of Karbela
Sang Psalms of Islam with all David’s awe.
Beloved, Amos is resurrection’s gauge,
The hope in hopeless ages for an age
Of messianic fervour and the skill
Of harpist and of slinger on the hill.
Beloved, I turn to sing in Amos’ mill.

AMOS 1

1 The words of Amos, who was with
The herdsmen of Tekoa’s kith,
That he saw about Israel
In the days of Uzziah’s spell
As king of Judah, in the time
Of Jeroboam son of Joash,
King of Israel and for no crime,
Two years before the earthquake bash.
2 And he said “YHWH from fortress roars,
From Jerusalem His voice pours,
‘The pastures of the shepherds mourn,
And Carmel’s crest withers at bourn.’”

You chose, Beloved, a worthy time to send
A prophet calling to repentance’ bend,
Two years before the earthquake that they might
Turn from their evil ways soon, and their spite.
Today as I was writing out the words
I speak to You, as heard from singing birds
Or wingèd angels above the white trees
Cut out in black jet lines and frosty frieze,
Shri Lanka’s coast was cut down by the blast
Of tidal wave and earthquake from the mast
Of Indonesia and Thailand as far
As India’s fishing villages and star.
Beloved, as I sit safely I repent,
In sorrow’s ashes I find the day spent.

3 YHWH says “For three transgressions of
Damascus, and four as above,
I’ll not turn away its judgement,
Because they’ve threshed Gilead rent
With implements of iron spent.
4 But I will send a fire into
The house of Hazael to do,
Which shall devour the palaces
Of Ben-Hadad and all of his.
5 I’ll also break the bar that stands
Before Damascus, and cut bands
Off the inhabitant on plain
Of Aven, and from whom remain
To hold sceptre in house of Eden
Of iron or gold or even reeden.
The folk of Syria shall go
Captive to Kir,” Says YHWH not slow.

Beloved, do You really greet heathen cant
With such unsophisticated a slant
As violence physical and puissant?
I’ll not call bluff, though preachers tell me true
That You are love alone and nothing grew
Of violence from Your arm bared to brew.
So Ben Hadad’s palaces faded fair
Because they did not recognize You there.
The sceptre falls from every human hand
By the process we call nature’s command,
And even righteous folk take to death bed
After a life well met and fortune spread.
Beloved, Damascus falls, and the same fate
Awaits the Roman church, Genevan state.

6 YHWH says “For three transgressions of
Gaza, and four, I will in love
Not turn away its judgement, for
They took captive whole lot and store
To deliver them up to Edom.
7 But I will send fire on their freedom
Upon the wall of Gaza, which
Shall burn its palaces like pitch.
8 I will cut off inhabitant
From Ashdod, and the one to rant
Holding the sceptre from the town
Of Ashkelon, I will with frown
Turn My hand against Ekron, and
The rest of the Philistines’ band
Shall perish there,” Says the Lord YHWH.

You call Your judgements down on Philistine
As well as British empire in to dine.
Their sin was worshipping fish god instead
Of You, and the rebirthing of the red
Sun that fell in the sea like Riding Hood
Who dawdled in the forest when the wood
Seemed sweet enough to linger in light’s good.
Who worship the absolute of space-time,
Calling it science instead of the rhyme
Of human hearts in darkness find the climb
To Ashdod and to Ekron meet the slime
Of Sodom and Gomorrah. My Beloved,
When I set out to worship shod and gloved,
Let me not worship Dagon’s stumps and shoved.

9 YHWH says “For three transgressions too
Of Tyre, and for four, I will not
Turn away its punishment hot,
Because they brought captivity
On the whole of Edom to be,
And did not remember the pact
Of brotherhood and how to act.

Tyre, Tyre, sings by the sea and loves to gloat
That she’s like New York City, town of note,
And realizes not her judgement’s due,
Even if by the hand of Muslim crew
Ignoring Your commands of what to do,
And wallowing in sinful bed and brew
To gather courage to go out and screw.
Damned is Tyre, lovely Tyre, and damned the goat
That steps with dainty sounds upon the rote
Of freedom, damned the hand of violence
That follows sin into its hidden tents.
Did she bring on Edom’s captivity?
Once more five times five hundred years in glee
She steals Edom’s bread in her oily fee.

10 But I will send a fire upon
The wall of Tyre, which shall be drawn
To destroy all its palaces.”
11 YHWH says “For three transgressions’ fizz
Of Edom, and for four, my biz
Is not to turn away its fall,
Because he chased brother from hall
With the sword, and cast off all pity,
His anger tearing the committee,
Keeping his wrath like the banditti.
12 But I will send a fire upon
Teman, which shall devour the drawn
Palaces of Bozrah till dawn.”

If You wreak vengeance on despoiler of
Edom, You do not let her off the shove,
But bring Edom to justice for the sword
She wields. Beloved, I have no brother bored,
Not of the flesh nor even the church board.
So far as faith goes I’ve not even scored.
I find escape from wrath since none are born
To call me brother, though they had been sworn.
I have no palace in Bozrah nor keep
In Teman with a silky place to sleep.
But send Your fire, Beloved, upon my heart
As I look to You with my simple part,
Ready to feel the sting of Your love’s dart.
Send fire into the fields, love’s fire to reap.

13 YHWH says “For three transgressions of
The people of Ammon to shove,
And for four, I’ll not turn away
Its punishment and judgement sway,
Because they ripped open females
With child in Gilead with wails,
Just to get more land in their pails.
14 But I will kindle fire on wall
Of Rabbah, and it shall appal
Its palaces with battle shout,
And a tempest in day of rout
And whirlwind. 15 Their king shall go out
Into captivity, he and
His princes together in band,”
Says YHWH out from the heavenly land.

If son of Esau escapes not Your sword,
Then son of Lot lets down a single cord
Into the pit to catch a poisoned fish
To place upon his finest dinner dish
And sleep eternal sleep as his last wish.
I pass the palaces of the great sons
Sitting on oil wealth warming their buns,
And know their turn is coming for the runs
They’ve made against the earth and the earth’s tons
Of hungry children. My Beloved, I bear
A silent witness of the troubles there.
I’ve chatted with the guards upon the steps
Of steel and concrete, seen their busy reps
Enter their limousines with silken heps.

AMOS 2

1 YHWH says “For three transgressions more
Of Moab, and even for four,
I will not turn away its fate,
Because he burned the bones of late
The king of Edom in lime pit.
2 But I will send a fire on it
In Moab, and it shall devour
Kerioth’s palaces an hour.
Moab shall die in that tumult,
With shouting and trumpet insult.
3 I’ll cut off the judge from its place,
And kill all its princes by race,”
Says YHWH in His love and His grace.

Moab too falls the fate of all who rise
To sin against the thunder of the skies,
Against Creator of the world and all
That sparkle in the ocean’s sandy hall.
Grant me a vision of the way to go
That leads to life and breath while on the stow,
The scene where You, Beloved, make show
Of tumult on the mountain where now dwell
The lonely inmates of monastery’s shell.
Moab too falls, and with her sounding fall
The houses of culture and charity
Remain bleak and sore as they come to see
That civilized efforts to contain force
In time must bend to the rival divorce.

4 YHWH says “For three transgressions yet
Of Judah, and for four, you bet,
I will not turn away its fate,
Because they have despised the great
Law of YHWH, and have not kept His
Commandments as it was their biz.
Their lies lead them astray, lies which
Their fathers followed in the ditch.
5 But I’ll send a fire on Judah,
And it shall devour to the raw
Palaces of Jerusalem.”
6 YHWH says “For three transgressions’ hem
Of Israel, and for four, I
Will not turn away its die,
Because they sell the righteous for
Silver, and the poor what is more
For a pair of sandals in store.
7 They pant after the dust of earth
On the head of the poor in birth,
And pervert the way of the humble.
A man and his father a-bumble
Go to the same girl, to defile
My holy name in churchly guile.
8 They lie down by every altar
On clothes taken in pledge too far,
And drink the wine of the condemned
In the house of their god well-hemmed.

Your people in times past, Beloved, knew well
The path leading to temple harlot’s door
Where for a silver coin a man could spell
A scientific plot to crease the score
And secure the fertility of lot
As well as wife and cattle, servants’ spawn.
A man could spend his silver there till dawn.
The bloody altar now reeks of the spill
Of candle wax, but Baal still gets his fill.
Frenetic grinding of the hips is still
The main attraction charismatics bill.
Beloved, the temple harlots’ ancient skill
Remains the Christian path from church to church
Where scantily clothed fillies twitch and lurch.

9 “Yet it was I who once destroyed
The Amorite before employed,
Whose height was like the cedars’ height,
And he was as strong as the bright
Oaks, yet I destroyed of his fruit
Above and beneath to his root.

The armies of the Lord also went out
From time to time and set the foe at rout,
Yet You, Beloved, take credit for the doubt.
I wot not when the three hundred bore lamps
And broke their pitchers on the evening damps
You were the One to cancel out their stamps.
But sometimes Israel fought with sword in hand.
It was not always You who gave command.
You take the credit for the slaughtering
Whether by hand of man or at the spring
Of natural catastrophe or at
The instigation of wonders that sat
As marvels in the sacred text. I know
In every human face I see Your glow.

10 Also it was I who brought you
Up from the land of Egypt true,
And led you forty years and through
The wilderness, to take the land
Of the Amorite in your hand.

While Aaron and Miriam make squabbling do
To say not only Moses brought them through,
But they were chosen prophets, they both too,
Beloved, You sound the word as strong and true
That You brought up the folk from Egypt’s land.
The visible I trow in Moses’ hand
Was rod and serpent and his full command,
And yet You were the Saviour from the place
Of bondage who walked with them without trace
Upon the desert sands. I seek Your face
Beyond the thing visible to my race
And find You still to do and be and come.
You are the fullness of goodness and sum,
Whether with rod and veil, or sword and mace.

11 I raised up some of your sons as
Prophets, and of your young men as
Nazirites. Is it not so, O
You children of Israel and slow?”
Says YHWH. 12 “But you gave Nazirites
Wine to drink, and commanded knights,
The prophets saying, ‘Do not speak
In prophecy!’ 13 “Indeed, I’m sleek
Weighed down by you, as a full cart
Of sheaves is weighed down on depart.

Ah, Amos knew the feeling when the lord
Officer of the king took up the sword
In hilt and came and handed him the word
Not to speak when You slashed his heart and stirred.
Though I am not a prophet, I have felt
The burning word in heart and tongue and welt
On soul: my word fell unheard on the air.
I too have known the futile, lonely prayer.
Beloved, I turn my face away from wine
Of the Eucharist when it’s brought out fine
For all to bow and worship at the vine.
Beloved, I turn my heart and hand from that
Cup filled with glut the dervish through the slat
Would give instead of visions where You’re at.

14 So flight shall perish from the swift,
The strong shall not strengthen his shrift,
Nor shall the mighty save his soul,
15 He shall not stand upon the goal
Who handles the bow, swift of foot
Shall not escape, nor shall he put
His trust in a horse to save him.
16 The most courageous men and grim
Shall flee naked upon that day,”
Says YHWH now as He has His say.

That day the strong shall flee away in fear
Before the wrath that You make to appear.
Perhaps You mean the days when You came down
To teach the Edomite what was Your frown,
And Ammonite to strip of golden crown,
And Philistine to hurry out of town.
Perhaps You mean the days that are to come
On Israel in the next chapter in sum.
Perhaps, and best, Beloved, You mean for me
The hope of seeing beyond grasping fee
That You will turn the plague of arms I see
Into a work that brings Your will to be
Done on this earth, though kings may make a row,
And presidents at church pretend to bow.

AMOS 3

1 Now hear this word that YHWH has spoken
Against you, folk of Israel, token
Against the whole family which I
Brought up from Egypt’s land awry,
Saying 2 “You only have I known
Of all families of the earth shown,
Therefore I will punish you for
All your iniquities and more.”

Beloved, You know the way of righteous men
But the way of the wicked once again,
Because You know it not, is gone astray,
Destroyed in the néant of judgement day.
Beloved, Beloved, know my iniquity
And destroy all the wickedness You see
In my action and word or even thought.
Leave nothing but the purity You wrought
In my self as reflection of the true.
Beloved, see and know everything I do,
And in Your seeing, Your creative sight
Turn all the lead and dross to golden bright,
Work out in secret shop the alchemy
That turns time’s naught into eternity.

3 Can two walk together, unless
They are agreed? 4 Will lion address
To roar in the woods without prey?
Will a young lion cry astray
Out of his den, if he has caught
Nothing? 5 Will a bird fall into
A snare on the earth with ado,
Without a deadfall to catch it,
Even if it be plump and fit?
Will a snare spring up from the earth,
If it has caught nothing of worth?
6 If a trumpet is blown in city,
Will not the folk in fear run gritty?
If there’s calamity in town,
Will not YHWH have on it looked down?
7 Surely the Lord YHWH does not do
Anything unless He shows to
His servants the prophets the hidden
Secrets to which they have been bidden.

Beloved! What secret things You have revealed
To prophet messengers, all things concealed!
Have You one secret left to give to me?
Then give me now that sacred mystery!
I turn to find Your name spelt out in sound,
One twit of finch, and flitting on the ground
The bright-eyed glint of robin says the word
Is found. Your secret is kept safe by bird.
I find Your name spelt out in leaf and twig
And scrawled across the sky in cloud as big.
Indeed I seek in vain to find a place
Where Your name’s not, that does not hide Your face.
Then why should I be startled when I find
There is no I but You, no I in kind?

8 A lion has roared! Who has not feared?
The Lord YHWH has spoken, appeared!
Who can but prophesy the weird?
9 “Proclaim in Ashdod’s palaces,
And in the halls where Egypt is,
And say ‘Assemble on the hills
Samarian, and see what fills
Her with great tumults, the oppressed
Within her. 10 For they have not guessed
And do not know to do the right,’
Says YHWH, ‘Who store up in their spite
Violence in their palaces
And robbery where their heart is.’”

Amos saw that Your people were just like
The Amorites in works, and in the spike
Like Philistines whose gods of sea and wave
Were taking all the people to the grave.
Amos saw that their worship of You was
Set out in the same colours and the claws
Of sense and sensuality because
The heart of all men in illusion’s paws
Invents demonic faith in what it gnaws.
Beloved, You look upon the church today
And see the synagogue in Satan’s sway
And hear the rock music echo its way
Through sacred halls of mosques where some men pray:
Righteous and wicked cut from the same rave.

11 That’s why the Lord YHWH says to them,
“An enemy around your stem,
He’ll sap your strength from you, and your
Palaces shall be plunder’s score.”

Indeed, Beloved, I see the plundered stroke
Upon the temple stones of which You spoke,
Even today they fall beneath the hand
Of civilized with military band.
The enemy stands in Jerusalem
And sparks the battle from the holy hem,
One shouting God is One to answer clear
The challenge that there is no god to fear
But God alone, and in that argument
Find strength to kill the child in helmet bent,
The man with stone in fist, the woman sent
To spy the way with glowering portent.
I see the palaces plundered again,
Which is why we make them of glass and yen.

12 YHWH says “As a shepherd takes from
The mouth of a lion two legs come
Or a piece of an ear, so shall
The folk of Israel prodigal
Be taken out of Samaria
Who still live there in a pariah,
The corner of a bed and on
The edges of a couch withdrawn!

May I be that remnant You snatch away
From the harm of the church and state to bay
At frozen star and moon, alone to stay
Upon the edge of couch, in corner lot
Surrounded by the roads that men forgot
To make right through my late depleted plot.
I cling to You alone, Beloved, when church
And priest despise Your law, leave in the lurch
The hungry and confess the company
Oppressing the poor has more right to be.
Your own are but the froth cast on the shore
From a great ship proud tossed, but now no more,
The ragged, shivering survivor alone
On desert isle without a god of stone.

13 “Hear and witness against the house
Of Jacob,” Says the Lord YHWH, God
Of hosts, 14 “That in the day I growse
Israel for their transgressions’ prod,
I’ll also bring it on the altars
Of Bethel, and horns of the altars
Shall be cut off, fall to the ground.
15 “I will destroy what I have found
Of winter house along with what
Is left of the summer house shut,
The houses of ivory shall end,
The great houses shall have an end,”
Says YHWH the faithful God and Friend.

Did You know that ivory now is banned
By law international from the stand
Of peddler? Now the only ones who get
That stuff are the wealthy who can pay yet
The price of poach and secret contraband.
Destroy, Beloved, the summer house, destroy,
And leave no great house left to the employ
Of Your name in the worship and the joy
Of idol in image of stone or in
The sound of sensual worship for its din,
Or in the mental images that peek
From creeds set out in Latin or in Greek.
Beloved, leave me a palace in my heart
Of stone enlightened by Your better part.

AMOS 4

1 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan,
Upon Samaria’s mountain ran,
Who oppress the poor, crush the needy,
Who say to your husbands though seedy,
“Bring wine, let us drink to a man!”

Bring wine, they say, bring wine and let us make
A feast to the Lord for his body’s sake,
A dance in honour of the ecstasy
That comes from whirling on the dergah’s scree.
Bring wine, they say, bring wine and let us go
Into the house of idols for the show
Of light and sound, the great gyration’s take,
The delight of every wench and her rake.
Beloved, give me the wine from Your own lips
That I may imbibe all Your words in sips
Until the sea once covered with fair ships
Is dry for the ink that Your day required
To write Your melodies bright and inspired,
That none can hear from the choked and the wired.

2 The Lord YHWH has by holiness
Sworn, “Indeed, the days shall address
You when He’ll take you all away
With fishhooks in your skin to flay,
And so too your posterity.
3 You’ll go out the broken city,
Each one straight ahead of her, and
You’ll be cast into Harmon’s land,”
Says YHWH. 4 “Now come to Bethel and
Transgress, at Gilgal multiply
Transgression, bring and testify
Your sacrifices every morn,
Your tithes every three days as sworn.

A cynical word, my Beloved, You speak
To ancient Israel because their cheek
In ritual to cover up their sleek
Oppression of the poor and their unjust
Dealings arouses in Your heart the dust
Of choking, incensed, marbled murder-lust.
Let them indeed transgress at Bethel and
Westminster Abbey, while the other hand
Rakes off the interest to pay their tithes.
So You prefer the singing of the scythes
Across a meadow rich with grass and thorn,
Instead of Psalms recited to Your scorn.
Beloved, Gilgal is buried in the sand,
But sacrifices still raise their demand.

5 Offer a sacrifice of thanks
With leaven, proclaim from your banks
And announce the freewill offerings,
For this you love in all its stings,
Folk of Israel!” Says the Lord YHWH
That speaks His scathing words to you.
6 “Also I gave cleanness of teeth
To you, in your cities’ bequeath.
And lack of bread in all your places,
Yet you’ve not returned Me your faces,”
Says YHWH. 7 “I also withheld rain
From you, with still three months to gain
The harvest. I made it rain on
One city, I withheld at dawn
Rain from another city drawn.
One part was rained upon, and where
It did not rain it withered there.

I too live in a world where faith is bought
And sold in every holy sort of plot,
And where its lovely sounds and colours rise
To send prayers Christian up into the skies,
Where Buddhist prayer wheels come in every size
And shape to show how wonderfully wise
Is faith, and where Jew and Muslim despise
Each other’s claim to sharing in disguise
The same God. I too live where rain may fall
And where the dearth raise up the sane in pall
Across the heavens riddled by the prayers
Of humankind. I too see merchant’s wares
Displayed as soon as the catastrophe
Loosens the hungry out on the debris.

8 So two or three cities wandered
To another city preferred
To drink water, but they were not
Satisfied, yet you were not taught
To come to Me,” Says YHWH distraught.

All men seek after breath the watered brook
That beckons thirsty throats from the dry book
To taste the real and swallow what is fresh
To the taste of blood, bone, and skin and flesh.
All men seek after water, food to fill
The belly with the hand, avoiding swill
If there is sweetness and new ripened fruit,
Or green shoots tender to the living root.
From city to grand city I have gone
To seek the waters of the rosy dawn,
To find the broken cisterns overdrawn.
From city and grand city I return
To You, Beloved, to find the thirsty burn
Quenched in Your name and what Your name may earn.

9 “I blasted you with blight and mildew.
When your gardens increased, and filled you
Your vineyards, your fig trees, and your
Olive trees, all safe put in store,
The locust consumed, yet you’ve not
Returned to Me,” says YHWH unsought.

Ah, my Beloved, I do return this day
From nibbling at the fronds that still may stay
Upon the twigs the locusts in their way
Devoured for their rejoicing prayers and sweet.
Ah, my Beloved, I do not spurn the pay
In ecstasy that from the altar may
Arise into the dark night and the sway
Of whirling before Your throne, at Your feet.
And yet I file past vineyards and fig trees
That find their olives too touched by the blight
While mildew creeps in an unholy frieze
Across the prayer book covers in my sight.
Ah, my Beloved, earth is not here to please
But lie in solid truth before Your light.

10 “I sent among you a plague then
After the way of Egypt’s men,
Your young men I killed with a sword,
Along with all your captive horde
Of horses, I made your camps’ stench
Come up your nostrils, man and wench,
Yet you have not returned to Me,”
Says YHWH saying sorrowfully.

Have You not noticed, my Beloved, that fear
And damnation and damage of the gear
Does not produce faith in the fond career
Of human hearts? Ah, You have noticed well
Catastrophe but reinforces spell
Of heathen heartfelt prayer before the bell.
Captivity and plague are not conducive
To other than false worship and abusive.
If You would have us listen on the stones
Where we bow down to praise our father’s bones,
Then You must set aside prophet and profit
And speak once more from Sinai not to scoff at.
Perhaps the stinking of the human camp
Will then blow off to sea. Lord, light a lamp.

11 “I overthrew some of you too,
As Ælohim once overthrew
Sodom and Gomorrah, and you
Were like a firebrand plucked as few
From the burning, yet you have not
Returned to Me,” says YHWH besot.

Atomic bombs may well put some to sleep
And raise up other to a vigil keep,
But firebrands from the burning, far between,
Are like the fireflies on the summer scene
Or shooting stars, a moment seen and passed.
The firebrand is no message here to last.
The Huguenot that fled with burning heart
Filled with faith and with Psalm to do his part
Gave birth to men illiterate and poor
To stand on Point Mountain at cabin door
Unconscious of the faith that led them there,
Unconscious of the fiery faith of Pierre,
While the spawn of the one who stayed behind
Sell diamonds from boutiques well stocked in kind.

12 “Therefore so will I do to you,
O Israel, because I’ll do
This to you, now prepare to meet
Your God, O Israel, on your feet!”
13 For indeed, He who forms the hills,
And makes the wind, who gives the bills
To man declaring him his thoughts
And makes the morning darkness plots,
Who treads upon the earth’s high places,
YHWH God of hosts, so His name traces.

Do You, Beloved, tread on high places of
The green earth to look down on me in love?
You form the hills and make the wind above,
And then declare to me my heart’s first thoughts.
The red trunk of the pines, the greyer fir
Speak to those thoughts and make them rise and stir.
The aspen and the birch turn and in blur
Cover the hillside and its treasure lots.
With silent step You tread indeed on high
And whisper to my lowly mind as I
Look out upon Your tracks upon the sod.
I bend toward You passing on the clod.
Beloved, the morning darkness on the snow
Leaves me knowing the pathways where You go.

AMOS 5

1 Hear this word against you I take,
A lament, house of Israel’s sake:
2 The virgin of Israel has fallen,
She’ll rise no more with none to call on.
She lies forsaken on her land,
There’s no one to raise up her hand.
3 For so says the Lord YHWH to stand,
“The city with a thousand strong
That goes out in a mighty throng
Shall have at last a hundred left,
And one that goes out as by theft
A hundred strong shall have ten left
To the house of Israel bereft.”

I see the cities go out thousands strong
To worship at the seat of idol’s wrong
And in gyrations meet the fatal crew
That webs a track across the morning dew.
All sleep. The silent morning creeps along
The wall where all in drunken rage fall down.
So love abundant troubles none in town.
The virgins fall to rise vaginas dripping
With what seed the drums gave them in their tripping.
The driving rhythms of the gods still speak
Within the sleeping brains after the leak.
I wait to see the last hundred to seek,
But silence covers every morning cloud,
And only Your word speaks to me aloud.

4 For so says YHWH to Israel’s house,
“Seek Me and live, 5 but do not grouse
With Bethel, nor enter Gilgal,
Nor pass on to Beersheba’s pal,
For Gilgal surely goes into
Captivity, and Bethel too
Shall come to nothing. 6 So seek YHWH
And live, lest He break out on you
Like fire in the house of Joseph,
Devouring it, with no one chef
To quench it in Bethel, 7 you who
Turn justice to wormwood in crew,
And lay earth’s righteousness to rest!”
8 He made the Pleiades and best
Orion, He turns death’s shadow
Into morning and makes day show
Dark as night, He calls for the flow
Of the sea and pours them out on
The surface of the earth at dawn,
YHWH is His name. 9 He rains upon
The strong a ruin, so that fury
Comes on the fortress in a hurry.

That You rain on the strong a ruined fury
Is comfort to my soul, weak in its curry.
Let me not turn justice, how few the cases
Where I have such power with swords or with maces,
Into wormwood. I’ve seen it done alas
By every police force that hits the grass,
And every court that is set up to pass
On what men do. Beloved, the beth deen crass
Of the Rabbis was never one so apt
To corrupt justice as the ones now capped.
Make day show dark as night, indeed, and yet
The night glistens upon the snow to fret
Out all along the hoarfrost. I have met
Your angels all invisible, though set.

10 They hate the one who in the gate
Rebukes, and they abhor the fate
Of one who speaks uprightly late.

Oh do they now hate one who at the door
Reminds them of what You said once before?
Indeed, repeat the Decalogue and see
How many would be ready at a pea
To crucify You, it’s a darling thing
That You appear not in the flesh and wing.
I and mine live beside the gate to hear
How none arise to speak because of fear,
And how assurance companies can leer
At those they fail to reimburse the tear.
Beloved, I look back on the generations
From which I spring and see their dreary rations.

11 Therefore, because you tread the poor
And take wheat bushels from his door,
Though you have built houses of stone,
Yet you shall not live in them lone,
You’ve planted pleasant vineyards too,
But you’ll not drink grape juice they grew.
12 For I know your many transgressions,
Your mighty sins without confessions:
Afflicting the just, taking bribes,
Diverting the poor from the scribe
Of justice at the gate. 13 Therefore
The wise keep still in that time’s store,
For it’s an evil time to war.
14 Seek good and not evil, that you
May live, So YHWH God of hosts true,
As you’ve spoken, will be with you.
15 Hate evil, love good, and set firm
Justice in the gate, do not squirm.
It may be that YHWH God of hosts
Will be gracious to raise the boasts
Of the remnant of Joseph’s coasts.

One of the fundamentals of true faith
Hides in Amos’ passage and like a wraith
Rustles the air and with no hue nor cry
Walks on through darkened morning, trembles by
The lilacs ready to cast off their blooms.
The word of Amos echoes through my rooms.
Seek good and love it, evil things eschew
And hate the evil whatever you do.
Beloved, I stop a-sudden in mid-air
And hear the harping of Amos and where
Your truth appears like diamond in the dust.
I seek the good, Beloved, and take the crust,
I drop the evil thing red hot and burning
And turn to You alone with all my yearning.

16 Therefore YHWH God of hosts, the Lord,
Says this, “In all the streets restored
Wailing, in the highways proclaim,
‘Alas! Alas!’ They’ll call the man
Of the field to mourning, and skilled
Lamenters to wailing distilled.
17 And in all vineyards there shall be
Wailing, for I’ll pass your country,”
Says YHWH. 18 Woe to you who desire
The day of YHWH, the day of fire!
For what good is the day of YHWH
To you? It will be darkness true,
And not light. 19 It will be as though
A man fled from a lion’s show,
And a bear met him! Or as though
He went into the house, and leaned
His hand on the wall, and he gleaned
A serpent there to bite his hand!
20 Is not the day of YHWH dark stand,
And not light? Is it not most dark,
With no brightness in it to park?

Your day, Beloved, dawns bright at end of week,
The Sabbath with its golden veils and chic.
It is no day of darkness, though I peek
At prophet’s words of warning, still I seek
Through shimmering veils of light the secret dark
That is not found at all outside the park,
And is not missing from the solitude
Of temple and of bar-room in the feud.
The darkness must remain in light and cloud,
The whisper of truth shall never be loud,
Not even on the great day when the shroud
Shall tear on which reality’s relief
Is etched for faith and works and men’s belief.
I handle in the balance what’s accrued.

21 “I hate, I despise your feast days,
I shall not smell your sacred ways
Of assemblies. 22 Though you give Me
Burnt offerings and your grain in fee,
I will not accept them, nor will
I regard your fattened peace hill.
23 Away from Me your noisy songs,
I’ll not hear the sound of your gongs
Of stringed instruments with their prongs.
24 But let justice run down like flows
Of water, and righteousness grows
Like a mighty stream as it goes.

The holiday beats like washing machine
Heard through three walls before the thing is seen,
With thunder drumming, screeching and the sound
Of entranced virgins plummeting the ground.
You hate, Beloved, the holiday and groove
That wails upon the worshippers who move
In grand array of love about the grove?
You hate the blood and sacrifice where strove
The priests and kings to find a treasure trove?
If You had been as we, descended from
The tapping simian toe from which we come
You’d understand why rock and roll since Baal
And Ashtoreth has always been on sale.
Stop, my Beloved, to enjoy sacred wail.

25 “Did you offer Me sacrifice
And offerings and everything nice
In the desert for forty years,
O house of Israel, without tears?
26 You bore in celebration tent
Of Moloch wherever you went,
And Chiun, your idols, the star
Of your gods, wherever you are
You made for yourselves. 27 Therefore I
Will send you in captivity
Beyond Damascus,” Says YHWH too,
Whose name is the God of hosts, YHWH.

The worship of Moloch is necessary
For the growth of cattle, corn and strawberry.
The wealth of the nation and its well-being
Depends on sacrificing to unseeing
Eye of Moloch and laying in his arms
Heated red hot our children for his charms.
The brash, oil-heated hands of Moloch still
Claim victims for democracy’s fair hill,
Captivity beyond Damascus and
The slaughter of the poor in every land.
Carnivorous gods are the best in state,
And worshipping them is for cup and plate
The essence of our science and our doom.
Beloved, come in and welcome to Your room.

AMOS 6

1 And woe to you who are at ease
In the fortress, and put your ease
In Samaria’s hills, in chief
Of the nations, to whose relief
The house of Israel has come!
2 Go to Calneh and see the sum,
From there go to Hamath the great,
Then go down to Gath wherein wait
The Philistines. Better than these
Kingdoms or their own panoplies,
Greater are your territories?
3 You who postpone the day of doom,
Who cause the violent in room
To come near, 4 who in ivory beds
Lie stretched out on your couches heads,
Eat lambs out of the flock and calves
From the midst of the stall in halves,
5 Who sing to the sound of the lute,
Inventing for yourselves the flute
Like David, 6 who drink wine from bowls,
Anointed with perfumes for souls,
But not grieved for affliction of
Joseph and for his children’s love.

There is a rite that postpones judgement day,
And brings a lamb in sacrifice to sway,
And touches the lute with new songs to sound
The wine from every bowl that’s passed around.
I take the day of judgement here and now,
And bring myself in offering and not cow,
While whispering the Four Books for my song,
I sip a wine of ecstasy and long.
Beloved, I sit among the idol throng
And seem to bow with those who know no wrong,
But heart and heel see only You behind
The forms and sacrifices of the blind.
Beloved, I sit, I rise, I whirl away
To find a glowing spark and then to stay.

7 Therefore now they shall go captive
As the first of the captives live,
And those who recline at banquets
Shall be removed from their fine sets.

I join the love feast, take the bread once set
Upon the rough hewn table and forget
The clamour and the din of those set free
By sacred dance and sacred revelry.
I join the love feast, foot soaked and made bare
Before the servant of the house and stair,
And single out the tapers burning bright
Before the love feast ends in the midnight.
Beloved, I sit at banquet too, and see
The visions of the golden-clad city,
I share the sop and grasp the tendered beard,
I kiss the cheek and brush the marbled feared,
And take my place covered in cowl and rope.
Beloved, I lift my eyes into the hope.

8 The Lord YHWH has sworn by His soul,
YHWH God of hosts says at the toll
“I abhor Jacob’s excellence,
And hate his palaces and fence,
Therefore I will deliver up
The city and all in its cup.”

Beloved, I have no palaces to hate,
I am a beggar sitting at the gate,
Unseen, unknown, and yet I am not late
To cross Your divine law with the estate
Of love, awareness till I kiss the truth,
All tattered, ragged, and in word uncouth.
Beloved, I have no excellence that You
Might abhor here above the morning dew
As I sip the light thread of the prayers due.
Beloved, I seek Your palaces and all
The excellences of Your opened hall.
The city and its fill have passed me by.
Perhaps my voice and song are just too shy.
I have no goat, no calf fatting in stall.

9 Then it shall truly come to pass,
That if ten men sit in one class,
They shall die. 10 When uncle of dead
And bone collector with ash spread
Pick up the bones to take them out
Of the house, and without a shout,
And say to one beside the house
“Are any more with you?” By grouse
He’ll answer, saying “No, not one.”
And he’ll say, “Hold your tongue when done!
We dare not mention name of YHWH,
Even if He should come in view.”

Set in the house of the dead, by the hearth
Casting its glowing on pallid and swarth,
Feeling the jarring of lamenters come
To raise the dead to life by chewing gum,
I turn to mention Your name at the crest
Of my remembrance, for Your name’s the best.
Some dare and some do not to say the name
That fills my soul with every burning flame,
And some who say it set aside the claim
Of Your law and Your love for rock and fame.
Beloved, the dead souls rustle in their sleep,
The guardians gyrate in vigil they keep,
And whether or no Your name I repeat,
The windows of the house glaze with the sleet.

11 For indeed, YHWH gives a command:
He’ll break the great house in the land,
And the little house into pieces.
12 Do horses run on rocks and creases?
Does one plough there with oxen’s nieces?
But you’ve turned justice into gall,
Righteousness’ fruit to wormwood’s pall,
13 You who rejoice over néant,
Who say “Have we not taken want
Of horns for ourselves by our strength?”
14 “But, indeed, I will raise at length
A nation against you, O house
Of Israel,” Says YHWH to douse,
The God of hosts, “And they’ll afflict
You from entrance of Hamath picked
To the desert river relict.”

The church by definition has to turn
Your justice into dust, or they would burn
With the desire to rule both house and land
Of every peasant and worker on hand.
Have You no patience with the hardy brood
Who make their wealth from oil brought out of food?
Your own sent one turned water into wine,
So why should they not make oil from the fine?
The church is here to justify the mine,
And not to worship You, Beloved divine.
It’s time to raise the nation and the wall
That puts end to ecclesiastic ball,
And makes justice out of the taste of gall,
And righteousness from wormwood’s caterwaul.

AMOS 7

1 So the Lord YHWH showed me, indeed,
He formed locust swarms at the seed
Of the late crop, late crop indeed
After the king’s mowings to plead.

When You, Beloved, send judgement on a people,
You also provide escape from the steeple.
The locust swarms may eat the green and all
The fruit not safe and round in bin and stall,
But as the green food disappears from sight,
You raise up something tasty for delight.
You once said fruit for man and for the beast
The green thing in the lot, baked without yeast,
But since that day You gave a full release
That summer and winter should never cease.
When plagues of locusts flutter on the field
I go out by Your law and reap the yield
Of insects and dip them in fire to taste,
With You and me nothing shall go to waste.

2 And so it was, when they had done
Eating the country’s grass for fun,
That I said “O Lord YHWH, forgive,
I pray! Oh, that Jacob may live,
For he is small!” 3 So YHWH repented
For this. “It shall not be,” consented
YHWH. 4 So the Lord YHWH showed me true,
The Lord YHWH called conflict by due
Fire, and it consumed the great deep
Devouring the land flat and steep.

If I escape the horde of locusts’ jaws,
I cannot flee away from Your firm laws.
Locusts give way to fire, and no escape,
And so I burn in flames of no god’s shape.
I too am small, and in Your mercy great
I feel the fires to come to You not late,
But burn if I must in Your loving heart
Never again to be from You apart.
Let Your fire consume all of my desire
And let my acts both good and ill expire
Within the purifying furnace of
Your grace and Your eternal burning love.
Repent not, my Beloved, of judgement set
Until face to face You and I have met.

5 Then I said “Lord YHWH, cease, I pray!
Oh, that Jacob may stand and stay,
For he is small!” 6 And YHWH repented
For this. “This also shall not be,”
Said the Lord YHWH and faithfully.

I pray You, cease, Beloved, I cannot bear
The burden of Your love to me, I swear.
The new day on the forest with its light
Upon the leaf of pine and fir but smite
Me with a burden of new ecstasies
Too heavy for my heart and for my knees.
The frostwork on the high and holy trees
Blinds eye and soul until even thoughts freeze.
The new spun brightness of the sun on lake
Is too much for my morning prayer to take.
I pray You, cease, Beloved, unless You wish
To unmake me before the banquet dish
Of Your new day upon a reeling world,
I pray You, cease before a life uncurled.

7 Then He showed me, indeed, the Lord
Stood on a wall plumbed with a cord
In His hand. 8 And YHWH said to me,
“Amos, now what it is that you see?”
And I said, “A plumb line.” Then He,
The Lord said “Indeed, I am setting
A plumb line for Israel’s abetting,
I’ll not pass by them anymore.
9 The high places of Isaac’s shore
Shall be deserted, and the tents
Of Israel shall be indigence.
I’ll rise with the sword on the house
Of Jeroboam and his spouse.”

Beloved, lift up Your splitting sword on me,
And raise a plumb line that my eyes may see
What wall is broken, bent and purposely
Left out of joint. Beloved, cast up the stone
On which Your law is written, Yours alone.
And I shall look out from my fortress cleft
Upon the sterile land caught and bereft,
And in that vision find a straighter steel
To mark my words and deeds and fix my heel.
Pass me not by, Beloved, stretch out the line
Of Your commandments, spill out the design
That would forebear to build Your temple right.
And I shall find a tent straight and alight
With guidance from Your hand to meet the fight.

10 Then Amaziah priest of Bethel
Sent to Jeroboam king lethal
Of Israel, saying “Amos here
Conspires against you without peer
In Israel’s house. The land is not
Able to bear his words in plot.

Ha! I have heard as much to raise my head
Upon the shame of righteous blood when shed,
To hear the accusation of well-bred
Poured on me too. Yet I have little done
In favour of Your law, Beloved, when sun
Sets in the glowing west. My foil is spun
Of a word spoken and a silence wrought
Before the engines of a battle fought.
The land cannot stand before feeble plot
Of quietly doing what You have sought
To reveal in ten words. I know the glow,
I know the retribution’s steel and show.
Beloved, in silent prayer I meet with You
And cast behind my back the State and pew.

11 “For so Amos has said ‘Let die
Jeroboam by sword, or try,
And Israel surely shall be led
Away captive from their own bed.’”

So I too say, the president and those
Who follow their rock music and their shows
Of worship in the square and in the throes
Of dying churches, all shall perish truly.
Your judgement comes on all the world and duly.
The sword shall slay the one who raises it,
Even if You, Beloved, have seen it fit
To raise the State in order and to keep
The robber from disturbing peaceful sleep,
The murderer from coming round to peep.
The Bible Belt shall give up from their beds
The preachers who have soiled them with their shreds
Of righteousness to be dealt with by fire.
Indeed, captivity shall gain its hire.

12 Then Amaziah said to Amos:
“Go out, you seer! and do not blame us,
But flee to the land of Judah.
There eat bread, and cast spells for awe.
13 But never again prophesy
At Bethel, for it’s the king’s sty,
And it’s the royal residence,
Where there should not be your presence.”

I too have been cast out of pulpit and
Pew, I too have gone out upon the land
To cantillate Your Word on every hand,
In church and synagogue and mosquely stand,
And even in the temple where the crew
Of idols waits for worshippers to view.
I too have eaten bread in Judah’s hills,
Appalled by the dry rocks with which it fills
The sky as far as lowly Jericho.
I too have been called aside from the show
And asked not to prophesy in the glow
Of ancient Hebrew syllables, but sing
Contemporary Christian posturing.

14 Then Amos answered, and he said
To Amaziah, “I was led
As no prophet, nor was I son
Of a prophet when I’d begun,
But I was a herdsman and tender
Of sycamore figs for the vendor.

Your prophet Amos, tender of such figs
Led a life of hardship not fit for pigs.
To make such fruit come on takes careful pricks
For each piece of small fruit worth hardly sticks.
There is no toil today of such profile,
So lowly and so arduous in style,
Requiring patience and skill without due
Recompense for the task. Amos in view
Is pastor who ekes out a living far
Below the poverty line, not a star.
Beloved, I’d send a tithe to Amos now
To feed a paunch, but it’s too late, I trow.
No doubt he would not take my charity,
For fear I might impinge on liberty.

15 Then YHWH took me as by the flock
I followed on from rock to rock,
And YHWH said to me, ‘Prophesy
Go to My folk Israel, please try.’
16 Now therefore, hear the word of YHWH:
You say, ‘Do not prophesy true
Against Israel, and do not rant
Against house of Isaac with cant.’
17 “Therefore says YHWH, ‘Your wife shall be
A harlot in the great city,
Your sons and daughters shall fall by
The sword, Your land shall be by spy
Divided by the line, and you
Shall die in a defiled land’s crew,
And Israel surely shall be led
Away captive from his own bed.’”

Beloved, I too for decade past my prime
Prophesied to Your folk in Hebrew rhyme,
And saw them turn away to whoredom’s bright
Stanzas couched in rock music for the fight.
They die before my noble prophecy
In spirit before dying bodily.
The empty shell of worship on the stair
Still meets the Sabbath crown and holy air.
But famished for Your Word, its melodies
Bright on the tongue and filled with sights to please,
The worshipper brought justly to his knees
Goes down unjustified because his pleas
Where sent to Baal and Ashtoreth with gifts.
Alone I sing the Torah. Heart uplifts.

AMOS 8

1 So the Lord YHWH showed me, indeed,
A basket of summer fruit feed.
2 He said, “Amos, what do you see?”
I said, “Summer fruit from the tree.”
Then YHWH said to me, “The end’s come
Upon My people burdensome,
Israel, I’ll not pass by them more.
3 Their temple songs shall be howling
In that day,” says the Lord YHWH, “for
Many dead bodies there to sing
They shall be thrown out in silence.”
4 Hear this, you who swallow presents
To the needy, and make the poor
Of the land fail, 5 saying “When will
The first day of the month be past,
That we may sell corn for the still?
And the Sabbath, that we may trade
Grain? Making the ephah small grade,
The shekel large, to falsify
The scales by our deceit and lie,
6 That we may buy the poor for naught
In silver, and the needy for
A pair of sandals, what is more
Sell the bad wheat cut in the blast?”

Pretence of spirituality gains
The governance of institutions’ reins
In all times and climes by the same means that
Do the rituals while remaining fat
On the oppression of the poor and on
The grasping greed at evening, noon, and dawn.
Who whirl in sacrifice while eating bread
Snatched from the poor, find that the song that’s said
Becomes the melodies of Baal and cry
That blast a burnished and an empty sky.
For that the rite continues and the breast
Is filled with love and prayers to beat the best.
Beloved, deliver me from what I think
Is lovely music, lovely bread and drink.

7 YHWH has sworn by the pride He taught
To Jacob, “Surely I shall not
Forget any of their works brought.
8 Shall not the land tremble at last,
For this, and all mourn who live there?
All of it shall swell like the flood,
Heave and subside like Egypt’s mud.
9 “And it shall come to pass that day,”
Says the Lord YHWH, “That I’ll betray
The sun and make it sink at fair
Noon, darken the earth in daylight,
10 I’ll turn your feasts before your sight
Into wailing, and all your songs
Into lamentation for wrongs,
I’ll bring sackcloth on every waist,
And baldness on each head in haste,
Like mourning for an only child,
The end like a day bitter, wild.

The popular faith comes in thousands of
Bright candy wrappers, each distinct in love,
But having at the heart one condiment,
The daylight darkened for a false faith sent.
Despite the different colours of the wrapping,
It’s all one faith betrayed by the same tapping
And slapping of the drums that beat the rate.
Who mentions it is howling finds the hate
That was parading as love at his gate.
Beloved, I take instead that Jacob’s pride
That sings upon Your words and multiplied
In every syllable of the Four Books,
Which are enough for sacred sound and looks,
To keep me whirling, whirling at Your side.

11 “Indeed, the days are coming soon,”
Says the Lord YHWH, “That I’ll lampoon
The land with famine, not of bread,
Nor a thirst for water, but read
And heard words of YHWH. 12 They shall go
From sea to sea, and not be slow
From north to east, run to and fro,
Seeking the word of YHWH, but not
Find it. 13 “In that day the besot
And fair virgins and strong young men
Shall faint from thirsty regimen.
14 Those who swear by Samaria’s sin,
Who say ‘As your god lives within,
O Dan!’ And ‘As Beersheba’s way
Lives!’ They’ll fall not to rise and play.”

As You dwell in the praise of Israel
And not in temple made by hands and well,
So every false god also dwells within
The songs sung by Samaria for sin.
The rhythm and the beat and melody
Call home the wandering god to hearth to be
The ruler of that place where his song’s sung,
No need to set his name upon the tongue.
I’ve see the teenage girls as well as young
Men faint in ecstasy before the blast
Of that wailed rhythm. Beloved, let me last
In firm and grateful recitation cast
In the same melodies Your ancient Word
Still takes to live and feed, though all eat turd.

AMOS 9

1 I saw the Lord stand by the place
Of slaughter, He spoke to my face
“Strike the doorposts, that the thresholds
May shake, and break them on the folds
Of all their heads, for I shall slay
The last of them with sword and fray.
Who flees them shall not get away,
He who escapes them shall not be
Delivered. 2 “Though they dig on spree
As far as hell, from there my hand
Shall take them, even though they stand
To climb up to heaven, from there
I shall bring them down, as I swear,
3 And though they hide themselves on top
Of Carmel, from there I’ll not stop
But search and take them, though they hide
From My sight at the bottom side
Of the sea, from there I’ll command
The serpent, it shall bite their hand,
4 Though they go in captivity
Before their unsought enemy,
From there I will command the sword,
And it shall slay them for reward.
I’ll set My eyes on them for harm
And not for good, but for alarm.”

I cannot hide from You, Beloved, who see
The depths of my heart from eternity.
If I flee from Your face I cannot bear,
I turn away from You and find You there.
In whirling in my haste to get away,
I run from You to You and find the way
Of Your wrath and Your love of the same pay.
But slay me with no sword from the outside,
Nor with a serpent dragon from inside,
But extirpate my nimble soul in flight
That there remain only the Soul in sight.
See eye on me for harm indeed and right,
And I shall be at rest in You by day,
And every night give only You the sway.

5 The Lord YHWH of hosts, He who touches
The earth and it melts in His clutches,
And all of them who live there mourn,
All of it shall swell like the storm,
And subside like Egyptian Nile.
6 Who builds His layers for a while
In the sky, has founded His strata
In the earth, who calls for the water
Of the sea, pours it out upon
The face of the earth, YHWH is drawn
To be His name. 7 “Are you not like
The people of Cush in my strike,
O children of Israel?” says YHWH.
“Did I not bring up Israel too
From the land of Egypt, also
The Philistines from Caphtor, show
The Syrians the way from Kir?
8 “Indeed, the eyes of the Lord YHWH
Are on the sinful kingdom’s rear,
And I’ll destroy it from the face
Of the earth, yet I’ll leave a trace
Of the house of Jacob,” Says YHWH.

Ah my Beloved, since I am Philistine
And Ethiopian, I do not pine.
As You have loved Israel in their time,
So You have loved my dark-skinned pagan rhyme.
As You have led the bondman to be free
Of Egypt’s yoke, so too have You led me.
Look on the sinful kingdom that I hold
Despite my willingness to travel bold,
Destroy it from my heart and hand and eye,
And leave only the trace to multiply
That is Your grace to Jacob who set out
To live and love despite his spoiling doubt.
Beloved, look on this whirling soul for good
And lead me whirling, whirling as I should.

9 “For surely I’ll command, and sift
The house of Israel in short shrift
Among all nations, as corn’s sifted
In a sieve, not the smallest lifted
Grain shall fall to the ground. 10 But all
My people’s sinners hear the call
Of death by the sword, those who say,
‘Calamity’ll not come our way.’
11 “On that day I shall raise the tent
Of David, which has fallen rent,
And fix its damage, I will raise
Up its ruins, as in the days
Of old I shall rebuild it 12 that
They may possess the remnant fat
Of Edom, all the Gentiles who
Are called unto My name,” says YHWH
Who does this thing. 13 “Indeed, the days
Are coming,” says YHWH, “When the plough
Shall overtake the reaper’s brow,
The treader of grapes him who sows
Seed, mountains shall drip as it goes
With sweet grape juice, and all the hills
Shall flow with it. 14 Against all ills
I shall bring back the captives of
My people Israel, whom I love,
They shall build the waste cities and
Inhabit them, by their own hand
They shall plant vineyards and shall drink
Grape juice from them, shall also sink
Their gardens in the soil and eat
Fruit from them. 15 I will plant their feet
In their land, and no longer shall
They be pulled up as prodigal
From the land I give them,” says YHWH
Your God in everything you do.

Calamity give to whirl corn and vine!
But when calamity is done, design
To raise the tent of David in my place
So I may cantillate before Your face
The Psalms of David, tried and taught and true
Which are the dwelling place of God and YHWH.
For my sake that tent lies in tattered rags
While I prance round in fad designer tags.
Give me the woollen cloak worn sere and bare
And take from me a living heart and where
You may again live on the chanting tongue
That sounds the ancient songs that David’s sung.
And from that tent of David I shall rise
To whirl from seed to harvest in the skies.

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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