THE COPTIC GOSPEL OF THOMAS VERSES 1 - 50

THE COPTIC GOSPEL OF THOMAS

These are the secret sayings that
The living Jesus spoke and that
Didymus Judas Thomas wrote.
1 He said, “Whoever finds the note
Of meaning in these sayings will
Not see death nor its lines fulfil.”
2 Jesus said, “Let him who seeks still
Go on seeking until he find.
And when he finds he’ll not be blind
To consternation, but astonished
And shall rule over all admonished.”

Beloved, I love Your messenger Messiah
And his spokesman, namesake, and not pariah,
Whose doubting built the greatest faith of all
That answers to Your love and divine call.
Life without death is to find that great knowing
That is the divine secret and its showing.
The first gate is the seeking that goes on,
The second gate is the surprise of dawn
Where love breaks through where duty sang its song
And consternation nails the right and wrong.
The third gate is astonishment at seeing
All things through the eye of the divine being.
The fourth gate is in truth the rulership
Of all that was from the start at the hip.

3 Jesus said “If those who lead you
Say ‘See, the Kingdom’s not in view
But out of reach up in the sky,’
Then the birds of the sky go high
Preceding you. If they tell you,
‘It is too deep to understand
Down in the sea,’ then any band
Of fish will go there before you.
Rather, the Kingdom is among
You, and all around you it’s sung.
When you come to know yourselves, then
You’ll become known by other men,
And you will realize it’s you
Who’re sons of living Father true.
But if you will not know yourselves,
You’ll stay in poverty on shelves
And that poverty will be you.”

The reason the dear and the tried on earth
Need leaders of good insight and of worth
Is because they must be led to the light
And truth that is so high it’s out of sight
Or else so deep that only a grand saint
Can dive to find it and dive and not faint.
The goal is not a journey and a way
But is the air and earth of present day.
It’s not to know another one and far,
But to know the divine right where we are.
I know there is no I, Beloved, but You,
And so I know You and myself and true,
As well as every self intimately,
And in that knowing You have set me free.

4 Jesus said, “The man old in days
Will gladly ask a child the ways,
A child of seven days old where
The place of life is for his care,
And he will live. For many who
Are first will become last to do,
And they will become one for two.”
5 Jesus said “Know what’s in your sight,
And that which is hidden from light
In you will become plain to you.
For there is nothing hidden that
Will not become clear to look at.”

The knowledge of the divine I comes fast
Like the awareness of a fear or fright
Without the intervention of the past,
The memory, the reading, or the light.
The hidden is a hidden thing because
I look at it through tentacles and claws
Instead of unpretentiously as fair
Without a label or a name stuck there.
Know what’s in sight and give no meaning to
The real and existent and the true.
So I know You and that knowing is clear
And direct on myself as any fear.
Beloved, I love like child or like old man
Whose knowing being two is one as can.

6 His disciples questioned him and
Said to him, “What do you command?
Do you want us to fast? How shall
We pray? Shall we give alms at all?
What diet shall we eat withal?”
Jesus said “Do not tell lies, and
Do not do what you hate at hand,
For all things are plain in the sight
Of Heaven, for nothing hidden from light
Will fail to be made known at last
And nothing covered will stay fast
Without being uncovered cast.”

The people ask what to add to the law
And in each age hold this or that in awe.
In Jesus’ time it was to fast and pray
And give alms and be held in diet’s sway.
Muhammad’s age held to the three of choice
But lifted pilgrimage above the diet’s voice.
The people ask the prophet what to do,
But in their asking assume what is true.
The prophet turns their gazing once aside
From non-essentials and the false heart’s pride
To see with honesty what comes to light
In simply seeking what is plain and right.
Pray, fast, and give alms if only that way
I can know You, Beloved, in me today.

7 Jesus said “Blessèd is the lion
That becomes man when man shall try on
Its flesh for meat; and cursed the man
The lion eats to become man.”

The self in its illusion roars amain
And searches out its prey to eat for gain,
And rushes through the veils of desert night
Consuming every other god in sight.
The pale of lust and power leave stomach full
Of nothing satisfying to the bull.
And so self searches for Self endlessly
Until she’s blessed with dining sumptuously
On the divine that always was in store,
The true before illusion’s stack and roar.
The Self may consume self and thus destroy
The chance to be a true and lovely boy.
Or self may consume Self in taking paten,
And let illusion lie at last to fatten.

8 He said “The Kingdom’s like a wise
Fisherman who cast in such guise
His net into the sea and drew
It up from the sea full of new
Small fish. Among them the wise fisher
Found a fine large fish in the swisher.
He threw all the small fish back in
The sea and chose the large fish fin
With no trouble at all. Who has
Ears to hear, let him hear whereas.”
9 Jesus said, “Now the sower went,
Took a handful of seeds well meant,
And scattered them. Some fell upon
The road; the birds came before dawn
And gathered them up. Others fell
On the rock, did not take root well
In the soil, and did not produce.
And others fell on thorns for use;
They choked the seed and worms ate them.
And others fell by stratagem
On the good soil and bore good fruit,
Sixty to one, or then to boot
A hundred and twenty to loot.”
10 Jesus said “I have cast fire on
The world, and see, I guard the dawn
Until it blazes up in spawn.”
11 Jesus said “This heaven will pass
Away, and that above alas.
The dead are not alive, and they
Who live will never know death’s way.
In the days when you consumed what
Was dead, you brought it to life, not?
When you come to dwell in the light,
What will you do then out of spite?
The day you were one you became
Two, but when you become in name
Two, what will you do without shame?”

The flesh and spirit are two meant to be
The sprouting seeds and are the fields to see.
One flesh is hard and nothing grows from it,
But one flesh is of kind spirit finds fit.
The spirit is forlorn and without fruit
Until it comes in flesh, grows up in shoot.
The seed dies then consumed and spirit’s gone
Until the living blade strives up toward dawn.
The green lives in the light and travels by
The prophet’s side who walks and wonders why.
Beloved, the dead seed that was one in night
Comes out alive in flesh and spirit bright,
Forever two, though You are only one,
Before and after that great day is done.

12 The disciples said to Jesus,
“We know that you’ll depart from us.
Who is to be our leader then?”
Jesus said to them, “Where you ken,
You are to go to righteous James,
For whose sake heaven and earth have names
And came into being and claims.”
13 Jesus said to his disciples,
“Compare me to someone that pulls
And tell me now who am I like.”
Simon Peter said to him, “Strike,
You’re like a righteous angel bright.”
Matthew said to him, “You are light
Like a wise philosopher right.”
Thomas said to him, “Master, my
Mouth is wholly incapable
Of saying whom you resemble,
What you are like, or are, or why.”
Jesus said, “No master am I
To you, because you’ve drunk the spring
And been filled by that living thing
That I have measured out and nigh.”
He took him and withdrew and told
Him three things. When Thomas was bold,
Returned to his friends, they asked him,
“What did Jesus say on the limb?”
Thomas said to them, “If I tell
You one of the things he told well,
You will pick up stones to stone me,
A fire will come out of them, see,
And burn you up eternally.”

James is a leader after Christ, and Simon
Found righteous angel instead of a pie-man.
Matthew saw the Christ as a wise man is,
Philosopher dividing hers and his.
But Thomas heard three words because he did
Not bow to Christs, angels nor human lid,
But saw the divine heart the universe
Within the Christ gave birth and in him hid.
For this the secret silence is his curse.
Belovèd, let not me do any worse.
I risk the volley of the flying stones
That seek my life and seek to bare my bones,
To know the three words hidden in Your heart,
Three words once spoken and still do their part.

14 Jesus said to them, “If you fast,
You will give rise to sin at last;
And if you pray, you’ll be condemned;
And if you give alms, you’ll be hemmed
About your own spirits with harm.
When you go into any farm
Or land or district, walk about,
If they receive you, eat what they
Set before you in grateful way,
And heal the sick among them, for
What may go in your mouth ignore,
It will not defile you, but that
Which issues from your mouth thereat
Is what will defile you the more.”

I do not cry to know the details of
Ever more detailed law instead of love.
I fast indeed, but fast from lying tongue,
And pray indeed only the prayer that’s sung
Within the hidden chamber of the heart.
I give alms for remiss and then I start
To find one hand does not know what the dart
Of the other accomplishes by art.
My blindness merely grows from day to day
As Your brightness takes my seeing away.
In failing of the law I rush to do
Some healing miracles on earth a few,
And so taste swine and rabbit in my teeth,
And take my slaying sword out of the sheath.

15 Jesus said, “When you see one who
Was not born of woman, then do
Prostration on your faces and
Worship him. That one is your Father.”
16 Jesus said “Men think, perhaps rather,
That it is peace I’ve come to cast
Upon the world. They’re flabbergast
To know it is dissension I
Have come to cast upon the earth:
Fire, sword, and war for all it’s worth.
For there will be five in a house:
Three will be against two in blouse,
And two against three, and the father
Against the son, and the son bother
Against the father. And they’ll stand
Each one a lone dervish for band.”

Ha! Thomas who knows secrets still not told
To priest and rabbi is put out of fold
For daring to say that one who is bold
To be born of a woman we must scold
If he claims to be God and Father of
The lambs who prance about the cot of dove
And serpent. Yet I hear the tone was cast
That angels not born of women have passed
Upon the earth’s bounds and would like to take
Some honour and some worship for the sake
Of having spent a weary while in air.
Such antichrists are like to give a scare
To such as me, Beloved, who only wait
To see You coming through the nearest gate.

17 Jesus said “I shall give you what
No eye has seen, what no ear shut
Has heard and what no hand has touched
And what no human mind has clutched.”
18 The disciples said to Jesus,
“Tell us what end will come on us.”
Jesus said “Have you found the start
That you look for the end of art?
For where the beginning is set,
There also will the end be met.
Blessèd is he who’ll take his place
In the beginning of the race;
He’ll know the end and yet not death
Nor even run race out of breath.”
19 Jesus said “Blessed is he who came
Into being before he came
Into being. If you become
My disciples and hear my words,
These stones will serve you in their herds.
For there are the five trees for you
In Paradise untroubled all
Year whose growing leaves do not fall.
Whoever comes to know them will
Not feel or know at all death’s chill.”

When Jesus starts to tell the secret of
The universe and the eternal love,
His followers stop his mouth with a glove
And ask instead to hear their fortune told.
That’s why true teachers are so rare and sold
For tonne on tonne of glittering precious gold.
The dervish rather does the damning trick
Or tells the tale of future gains as slick
As any reader of the palm and eye.
All scamper after what instead of why.
Beloved, the five celestial trees look down
On fourteen on the earth and with renown.
To hide in evergreen is future cold
Enough to flee to Enoch, not to scold.

20 The disciples asked Jesus, “Tell
Us how Heaven’s Kingdom shall excel.”
He said to them, “It’s like a seed
Of mustard, of seeds small indeed.
But when it falls on the tilled soil,
It makes a great plant to uncoil,
Becomes a shelter for the birds
That come down from the sky in herds.”
21 Mary said to Jesus, “Whom are
Your disciples like and in par?”
He said “They are like children who
Have settled in a field that grew
What was not theirs. And so when come
The owners of the field to plumb
They’ll say ‘Let us have back our field.’
They will disrobe before them, yield
Their field and give it back to them.
Therefore I say to you a gem,
If the house owner knows the thief
Is coming, he will start relief
In his vigil before he comes
And will not let him take his sums
From his house and from his domain
To carry away his goods’ gain.
You, then, be on your guard before
The world. Arm yourselves with the store
Of great strength lest the robbers find
A way to come to you behind,
For the troubles that you expected
Will surely appear as suspected.
Let there be among you a man
Of understanding. When the bran
Ripened, he came quickly with his
Sickle in his hand for the biz
Of reaping it. Whoever’s got
Ears to hear, let him hear what’s taught.”

Again the questioners ignore the tale
Of mustard seed, instead they would prevail,
Identifying great men of the spirit.
Ambition cuts the heart open to sear it.
The kingdom of heaven is like a seed
Hidden in the world’s field, below its greed,
Invisible, though all search for a church
That’s too strong to leave any in the lurch.
The kingdom is a lowly plant passed by
The human marchers onward toward the sky,
But those who sing their sema’ and who fly,
Find in its branches all the reasons why.
Let others rob and reap, Beloved, while I
Rest in Your heart invisible and shy.

22 Jesus saw infants being suckled.
He said to his disciples buckled,
“These infants being suckled are
Like those who enter Kingdom’s bar.”
They said to him, “Shall we then come
As children into the Kingdom?”
Jesus said to them, “When you make
The two one, and then when you make
The inside like the outside and
The outside like the inside hand,
And the above like the below,
And when you make the two to go,
The male and the female one and
The same, so that the male not stand
As male nor the female female;
And when you fashion eyes regale
In the place of an eye, and hand
In the place of another hand,
And a foot in place of a foot,
And likeness in likeness’ place put,
Then will you enter Kingdom’s band.”

The spirit seed and earthy flesh became
One when the sprout came up to praise Your name.
The infants and their milk become one too
When they drink from the breast their mother’s dew.
The outside and the inside become one
When every act and word is always done,
Not in the sight of one or other neighbour,
But in the sight alone of You, whose labour
Alone makes flesh and spirit come alive.
The oneness of the soul does not contrive
To be one thing to Roman and to Greek
Another by the template that they seek.
And yet, Beloved, the honest face of theft
Upon my word is even more bereft.

23 Jesus said “I shall choose you, one
Out of a thousand, when it’s done,
And two out of ten thousand, and
They shall stand as a single one.”
24 His disciples said to him, “Show
Us the place where you are, we’ll go
In search of it if needs be found.”
He said to them, “Who has got ears,
Let him hear what teaching appears.
There’s light within a man of light,
And so lights up the whole world right.
Not shining, it stays in the night.”
25 Jesus said “Love your brother like
Your soul, guard him from every strike
Like the pupil of your eye’s might.”
26 Jesus said “You see the mote in
Your brother’s eye, (and call it sin),
But you do not see the beam in
Your own eye. When you cast the beam
Out of your own eye, then you’ll deem
To see clearly to cast the mote
From your brother’s eye, not by rote.”
27 Jesus said “If you do not fast
As regards the world, you’ll not last
To find the Kingdom. If you do
Not observe the Sabbath as true
A Sabbath, you will not be able
To see the Father, but a fable.”

The Master prayed that we might all know You,
Beloved, and perhaps all of us know true,
But there is only one time that a man
Can see the Father, and that time began
When evening drew nigh for the Sabbath rest.
The Sabbath rest is rest from all the dressed
Veils that hide the divine from human breast.
Let me fast from the world throughout the week
And thus see that great face at last I seek,
Your face, Beloved and Father, without veil
As Moses and Elijah told the tale.
Like Moses let the vision make me meek,
And like Elijah, kindle my desire
To enter Sabbath chariot of fire.

28 Jesus said “I took my place in
The midst of the world, and I win
Appearing to them in the flesh.
I found them all drunken and fresh;
I found none of them thirsty there.
My soul was afflicted with care
For the sons of men, because they
Are blind in their hearts, sight of day
Is lacking to them, empty they
Came in the world, and empty too
They seek to leave the world and true.
But for the moment they are drunken.
When they shake off their being sunken
In wine, then they’ll repentance do.”
29 Jesus said “If the flesh came to
Being because of spirit true,
It is a wonder. But if spirit
Came into being (or came near it)
Because of the body, it’s more
A wonder than wonder before.
Indeed, I am amazed at how
This great wealth has settled and now
Makes its home in poverty’s brow.”
30 Jesus said “Where there are three gods,
They are gods, but where there one plod
Or two, I’m with him where he trod.”

Where two or three gather and in the name
Of Your sent one, such people bear no shame,
But are exalted ones as gods must be
That shake off wine and veil and come to see.
Let me gather upon the Sabbath day
With one or two and thus learn the right way.
It is a wonder that the spirit rises
Through the obedience that some despises.
Why can the spirit not come from the flesh
Of any day and every day afresh?
It is a wonder that it wakens only
Upon the dawn of Sabbaths not held lonely.
Such days of body, miracle to rise,
Know flights of spirit from the earth to skies.

31 Jesus said “No prophet’s accepted
In his own village intercepted;
And no physician heals those who
Know him of old in what they do.”
32 Jesus said “A city strong built
On a high mountain cannot tilt,
Nor can it be hidden in silt.”
33 Jesus said “Preach from your housetops
That which you’ll hear in your ear stops.
For no one lights a lamp and sets
It under a bushel for bets,
Nor does he put it in a hidden
Place, but rather sets it unbidden
Upon a lampstand so that all
Who enter in or leave the hall
Will see its light beyond recall.”
“Preach from your rooftops what you’ll hear
Resounding in your faithful ear.
For no one lights a lamp and then
Puts it under a basket, men
Do not put it in hidden corner.
Rather, one puts, not as a scorner,
It on a stand so all who come
And go will see the light or some.”
34 Jesus said “If a blind man leads
A blind man, they for all their creeds
Will both fall in a pit of weeds.”

The tables of stone lie hidden and dark
Beneath the golden mercy seat in ark.
But they illuminate and shine before
The golden lampstand set before the door.
The light of true obedience grows on
To be the spring of spirit on the dawn.
Beloved, light up my stumbling way of stone,
Though sapphire tablets, to approach Your throne.
The lamp and stone are hidden under tent,
But here the many veils are torn and rent,
And all the glory lies beneath the stars,
Unseen upon the housetops for the bars.
Beloved, light up my stumbling way of stone,
Though sapphire tablets, to approach Your throne.

35 Jesus said “It’s not possible
To enter a strong man’s house full,
And take it by force unless he
First binds his hands; then he will be
Able to rob his house for free.”
36 Jesus said “Do not be concerned
From morning until evening turned
And from evening till morning for
The things you’ll wear or keep in store.”
37 His disciples said “When will you
Become revealed to us and you
Be seen of us for what we do?”
Jesus said “When you disrobe and
Without shame take your clothes in hand
And place them under your feet like
Little children, some little tyke
That stomps on them, then you will see
The Son of the Living One be,
And you will not see fearfully.”

Beloved, naked I come into the place
Of slaughter and before Your loving face,
Face shining with such bright I cannot see,
But fall expiring on the sapphire lee,
Naked I come to whirl in sacrifice,
No veils between my heart, veils that suffice
To clothe the shameful from the shameful sight.
Naked I come to sacrifice aright,
Naked my body lies before the hand
That washes it and sends it to the sand.
Give me no shroud, Beloved, in my distress.
I do not need or want the covering dress.
Naked I step onto the slaughter ground
With eyes only for You in what I’ve found.

38 Jesus said “Many times have you
Desired to hear these words and true
Which I am saying now to you,
And you have no one else to hear
Them from. There will then days appear
When you look for me and will not
Find me nor the lessons I’ve taught.”

Beloved, You sent upon the earth each guide
And prophet for the humans not to slide,
And when I meet such figures they abide
Each only to reveal the tempted thought.
There is no other in their times that wrought
Such truth on earth, no other in their towns,
And yet each one met crowds and crowds of frowns.
No wonder Jesus promises the time
Will come when we shall search in every clime
And find no divine guide or prophet set.
We’ve crucified or tried each one we’ve met.
Beloved, I too search out the promised land
And find the famine scorching every band,
While I eat fruits directly from Your hand.

39 Jesus said “The Pharisees and
The scribes have taken into hand
The keys of knowledge hidden so.
They don’t themselves in knowledge go,
Nor have they let those who wish to
Enter into knowledge, but you
Be just as wise as serpents are,
As innocent as doves by far.”

The scribes and Pharisees are all long dead,
And they performed a duty for those led
Who wished to survive Roman ravaging
Of the holy land without promised king.
I set aside pious accommodation
Known now and ever since that plundered nation
Invented ways to survive Roman rule.
But I remain, Beloved One, Your own fool,
Opposing the establishment and shaking
The water from my fur and no mistaking.
A fool dog too enthusiastic I
Pray You will create in me by the by
A serpent’s heart of wisdom and a pure
Innocence like the dove’s, then I’ll be sure.

40 Jesus said “A grapevine has been
Planted outside the Father’s inn,
But being unsound, it will be
Pulled up by its roots, destroyed tree.”

The grapevine that is planted out of reach
Of Your divine heart is what preachers preach
Of the faith devised by proud Constantine
Who planned to rule the world with tainted wine.
He saw a trinity would work just fine,
For who could believe one is three, and three
Is one, could be led into any fee.
If the accommodation Pharisee
Made is a sin, then what of this bold spree?
Who criticise the scribe that wished him dead
That You had sent, ought to know this instead,
That creeds from Nicaea or any barn
Are grapevines torn and stitched from pagan yarn.
Let me, Beloved, find You, not what I’ve read.

41 Jesus said “Who has something in
His hand will receive more in bin,
And who has nothing will be stripped
Of what little his hand has slipped.”

How true the words that empty hands are given
No more than emptiness yet and to live in
Eternal poverty, and it is true
That money attracts money as its due.
The cynical attraction is a rule
For faith and spirit also in the pool
Of trite existence. Those with priestcraft who
Lie on the rim of nothingness resign
To having nothing by afternoon wine,
While those few bankers who pursue the goal
Of knowing You, Beloved, unknown in soul
And the Unknowable, find that the hand
Is filled beyond the knowing and command.
I find my poverty’s blasted to dine.

42 Jesus said “Become passers-by.”
43 His disciples said to him, “Why,
Who are You, that You should say these
Things to us?” Jesus said to please,
“You do not realize who I am
From what I say to you, poor lamb,
But you’ve become like the Jews,
Who either love the tree, refuse
Its fruit, or love the fruit and hate
The tree.” 44 Jesus said to the mate,
“Who blasphemes against Father God
Will be forgiven, though a clod,
And who blasphemes against the Son
Will be forgiven, when he’s done,
But who blasphemes against the Holy
Spirit will not be, fast or slowly,
Forgiven either on the earth
Or in heaven, but kept in dearth.”

The sin against the Holy Spirit’s just
A comment on the main word and the thrust
Of what Jesus said and meant on the day
He told us to be passers-by and prey
On what spectators on the trouncing world
Reveals day by day in a thing unfurled.
Alternative to such detachment is
Either to love the tree and leave the fizz
Or love the fruit and hate the tree and his.
Set me, Beloved, neither to this world’s tree
Nor to the fruit of uneternity.
Instead I flee all things, detached, remote,
Clutching timorously the edge of boat,
Afraid the soul’s detachment will not float.

45 Jesus said “Grapes are not picked from
Thorns, never are figs found to come
From thistles, for they do not yield
Fruit. A good man brings forth like field
Good from his storehouse; evil men
Bring forth evil things from their ken
And storehouse, which is in his heart,
And says evil things for his part.
For out of the abundance of
The heart he brings forth evil love.”

The surface of this word suggests that men
Are born to evil or to good again,
And none can chance the fate of his own tongue
Betraying his deeds in the songs he’s sung.
It is not so. The word is spoken to
Both those who love the tree and those who do
According to the fruit. All things are blessed
With crookedness in features and caressed.
The good storehouse is that the passer-by
Reaches in his detachment for the sky.
Out of the heart abundant that I find
When I cast out my own heart and my blind
Self to find home and hearth in the Self taught
Is the true way to my own precious plot.

46 Jesus said “Among those born of
Women, from Adam until John
The Baptist, there is none so great
As John the Baptist that his late
Eyes should not be lowered before
Him. Yet I’ve said and say once more,
Who of you comes to be a child
Will be acquainted with the styled
Kingdom, and greater far than John.”

How is Adam one born of woman come,
Who had no mother or dad he was from?
The matter is well known, for that the rib
That became Eve was more than her first crib.
It was the side from which Adam was taken
And from the sleep of androgyn to waken
Upon a world of married lust new shaken.
The longing back to union of the first
Is just a trick of hormones and of thirst.
Beloved, though men from women come and they
Are born of men too in curious way,
The oneness of creation speaks today
Of what the start had hoped for in a ray.
Some lie blessed in the way where some are cursed.

47 And Jesus said “To mount upon
Two horses or stretch two bows is
Impossible for any man.
For a servant to serve both his
Two masters is nothing he can;
Otherwise he’ll honour the one
And treat the other like the Hun.
No man drinks old wine and then wants
To drink new wine in what he flaunts.
And new wine is not put into
Old wineskins, lest they burst a few;
Nor is old wine put in a new
Wineskin, lest it spoil it. An old
Patch is not sewn onto the fold
Of a new garment, since a tear
Would be result of any wear.”

The old wine of the prophets is wine sweet
And yet this Jesus brings a better treat.
The prophets promised only success in
This life if a man lived it without sin.
Jesus is offering eternal life
Based not on the good that do man and wife,
But based on the inheritance the king,
The Son of David gains under the wing
Of conquering death then rising to sing.
If he can only show that it's not late
Rehashing of the pagan sort of fate
With heathen solar deities in rate,
And that the Sinai message, reasons tongue
Is still right, then it is a heavenly rung.

48 And Jesus said “If two make peace
With each other for an increase
In this one house, they will say to
The mountain, ‘Move away,’ and true
It will do so.” 49 And Jesus said
“Blessed are the solitary fed
And the elect, for you will find
The Kingdom. For you are the kind
From it, and to it you’ll return.”

The musahiblik is a wondered thing,
Two young men loyal in their wandering,
Like David and like Jonathan to sing.
If just two on earth can agree in love,
Then they can move the mountains with a shove.
But that's the catch. There are no two to strike
The iron with the kind of blow You like.
Each heart is bent on something in the share,
A secret benefit and selfish care.
But if there ever are two men agreed
In innocence before Davidic seed,
Then mountains that today seem firm and fast
Will rise up, take up bed, and walk at last,
And spoil the havens of the royal breed.

50 Jesus said “If they say to spurn,
‘Where did you come from?’ say to them,
‘We came from the light, and the hem
Where the light came into being
On its own accord and with wing
Established itself and was seen
Through their image upon the screen.’
If they say to you, ‘Is it you?’
Say ‘We are its children, the few,
We are the elect of the living
Father.’ If they ask you be giving,
‘What’s sign of your father in you?’
Say to them, ‘It’s movement and rest.’”

The argument that's best is just to say
The mountainside is moving in its way,
Although you look and it still seems to stay.
There is no sect or label of the just
Who rise up in their witness against dust,
But they are light indeed, and not the fussed
Claimants that always step into the thrust
Of limelight and of lemon dark to make
A greater clamour for their own name's sake.
Beloved, I take hold of the sign you give,
A bared knife on the hand by which I live,
And find it rests in Sabbath-like refrain
Despite the movement of the sun and rain,
Despite the rushing of the stars to gain.

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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