THE COPTIC GOSPEL OF THOMAS VERSES 51 - 114

THE COPTIC GOSPEL OF THOMAS VERSES 51 -114

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.

51 His disciples said to him true,
“When will the rest of the dead blessed
Come about, and when will the new
World come?” He said to them, “What you
Look forward to’s already here,
But you do not know it for fear.”
52 His disciples said to him then,
“Twenty-four prophets spoke to men
In Israel, and all of them spoke
In you.” He said to them for oak,
“You have omitted the one living
In your presence and have been giving
Word only of the dead.” 53 Then said
His disciples to him, they said
“Is circumcision good or not?”
He said to them, “If it were spot
Of benefit, their father would
Beget them already made good
By circumcision from their mom.
Rather, true circumcision’s balm
In spirit’s become wholly fit
And purified in every whit.”
54 Jesus said “Blessed are the poor,
For yours is heavenly kingdom’s store.”

The human selfish view of kingdom's wrong,
And that is why the battlefield's a song.
The kingdom had arrived as soon as one
Appointed to the throne had been and done.
Jesus says he's the king and kingdom blessed,
And in him everyone who will has rest.
I enter in the kingdom day by day
When I set all aside beside the way
And take the king as my own in the fray.
Some wait for victory before they say
The kingdom's here, but I, sweet One, agree
To the rule of Your sent one in the spree,
While battles still rage in deathly country.
I enter now the kingdom, if I may.

55 Jesus said “Whoever does not
Hate his father and mother’s lot
Cannot be disciple to me.
And who does not hate faithfully
His brothers and sisters and take
Up his cross for My way and sake
Will never be worthy of me.”
56 Jesus said “Whoever has come
To understand the world in sum
Has found only a corpse, and who
Has found a corpse is surely true
To be above the earthly crew.”
57 Jesus said “The Father’s kingdom
Is like a man with good seed come.
His enemy arrived by night
And sowed some weeds among the right.
The man did not let them pull up
The weeds; instead he stayed to sup
And say to them, ‘I am afraid
That your well-meaning that is laid
To pull up weeds will also pull
Up the wheat along with the full.’
For on the day of harvest weeds
Will plainly be revealed in deed,
And they will be pulled up and burned.”

Beloved, I stand among the wheat and tares
Of life and longing, and through all its cares,
Still know that You are one and on the throne:
The kingdom's one as soon as the heart's own
Is given to the king in flesh and bone.
Beloved, I stand among the wheat and see
That kinship is a blessing in degree,
But that no father, mother, brother here
Can boast the ship without a sigh and tear.
And so I hate all things, the sweet and best,
And in that love lay hopes and fears to rest.
The crosses and the weeks may thrive a while,
The brothers rise up in a fresh new guile,
And still the kingdom waits upon the smile.

58 Jesus said “Blessed is the spurned
Man who has suffered and found life.”
59 Jesus said “Take heed without strife
Of the Living One while you live,
Lest you die and seek, as He’ll give,
To see Him and not find a way.”
60 Samaritan upon the way
Carried a lamb toward Judaea.
He said to his disciples’ awe,
“Why does that man carry the lamb?”
They said to him, “Without its dam
So that he may kill it and eat.”
He said to them, “While it’s alive,
He will not eat it for a treat,
But only when he will deprive
It of its life and it’s become
A corpse.” They said to him in sum,
“He cannot do so otherwise.”
He said to them of their demise,
“You too, look for a place to rest,
Lest you become a corpse at best
And be eaten.” 61 Then Jesus said,
“Two will rest both upon one bed:
One will die, one will live instead.”

The slaughtering of lamb in Gospel word
Is something more than covenant that's spurred
Among the ancients, something other than
Propitiation in the plan of man.
Unless the soul finds place in kingdom of
The Father and within the land of love,
A rest, a Sabbath rest, among the shove
Of pagan action, all with fall in glove
To be consumed upon the empty life
That turns to death within the weary strife.
Beloved, let me be no corpse in Your room,
But with my whirling better face my doom,
And show eternity in heart and hand
Upon the rest that rests upon the land.

Salome said to him, “Who are
You, as a man, that you, like star
From the One, have come on my couch
And eaten what my tables vouch?”
Jesus said to her, “I am he
Who exists from the undivided.
I was with some good things provided
By my Father and faithfully.”
“I am your follower,” she said.
Jesus told her, “Therefore I said,
If he is undivided wed,
He will be filled with light, but if
He is divided, he’s a skiff
To be filled with darkness instead.”

There's no division in the I that's You,
There's only one Ælohim in my view.
Each soul that peers from eyes around the world
Is a line to Your heart and mind unfurled.
The oneness of the universe displayed
Is just the demonstration on parade
That You alone are I and undismayed.
There's no division in the I that's found
Upon the new sky at the morning round,
Upon the slow enclosing of the ground
Upon the granite that makes up the sound.
Beloved, there's no division I can find
Among the sighted or among the blind,
And all remains responsibly unmined.

62 Jesus said “It is to those who
Are worthy of my mysteries true
That I tell of my mysteries to.
Do not let your left hand know what
Your right hand does open or shut.”

The mystery of Jesus is not what
He taught in secret behind a door shut,
But that his followers with the left hand
Should give what the right hand had never planned
In alms of charity about the land.
The secret teaching of the dervish code,
The seventh blessing in the eighth abode
Is giving to the poor a steady load,
The feeding of the hungry at the door,
The keeping of provisions in their store.
Beloved, I seek the mysteries occult
And find the greater teachings and adult.

63 Jesus said “There was a rich man
Who had money as all such can.
He said ‘I’ll put money to use
To sow, reap, plant, and so achieve
To fill my storehouse with produce,
With which I shall lack no reprieve.
So he intended, but that night
He died. Who has ears hear aright.”

Death greets each soul from birth until the grave
In daily doses for both king and slave.
I die with every exhalation's breath,
I die when sleep comes over me like death.
Baptisms follow on, the spirit lies
In tombs and rooms all covered from the skies.
And yet with the new gulp of air I find
My hand returns to golden sheaves to bind
The bread both daily and the stored up kind.
Beloved, the storehouse of my weight and strength
Diminishes in time and in the length
Of hope and desperation on the brink
Of golden ears and clasps joined link to link.

64 Jesus said “A man had received
Guests. And indeed when he’d conceived
To fix food, he sent servant out
To invite guests. He went to one
And said to him, “My master’s done
To invite you.’ He said ‘I’ve claim
Against some merchants to their blame.
They are coming to me this night.
I must go and give them their plight.
I ask to be excused this time.’
He went to one more with the rhyme,
And said ‘My master invites you.’
He told him, ‘I've just bought a new
House and I’m very busy now.
I do not have time anyhow.’
He went to another and said
To him, ‘My master’s laid a spread
And invites you.’ He said to him
‘My friend’s going, with all the trim,
To get married, and I am the one
To get ready the banquet fun.
I shall not be able to come.
So I ask to be excused from
The dinner.’ He went to one more
And told him ‘My master before
Invites you.’ He said to him, ‘I
Have just bought a farm, and so I
Am on my way to take the rent.
I’ll not be able to consent.
May I be excused.’ The servant
Returned and told his master, ‘Those
Whom you invited to feast chose
To be excused.’ The master said
To his servant, ‘Go out instead
To the streets and bring back those whom
You happen to meet in their room,
So that they may dine.’ Businessmen
And merchants will not come again
Into my Father’s paradise.”

The tasks that meet me through the day impel
The hand to work the fingers now to sell,
And now to dig a storehouse and a well.
I get Your invitation by surprise
And see around me in all sorts of guise
Necessities and reasons why I must
Not leave the duties wherein I must trust.
And yet my love constrains me on the way,
The resonances of the ringing pay
Grow far remote, and I rise up to play.
Beloved, the feast, though unexpected here,
Is full and ready and so I appear
To find the jalabiyya white and sere,
The minstrel music dashing on my ear.

65 He said “There was a good and nice
Man who owned a vineyard. He leased
It to tenant farmers increased
So that they might work it and he
Might collect the produce for free.
He sent his servant to collect
From the tenants produce select
Of the vineyard. They grabbed the man
And beat him, nearly killed by plan.
The servant came to tell his master.
The master said ‘Perhaps disaster
Was they did not recognize him.’
He sent another servant prim.
The tenants beat this one as well.
The owner sent his son to tell,
And said ‘Perhaps they’ll show respect
To my son.’ They did not neglect
To know it was he who was heir
To the vineyard, they seized him there
And killed him. Let whom has ears hear.”
66 Jesus said “Show me the stone which
The builders had thrown in the ditch.
That very one’s the cornerstone.”
67 Jesus said “Who believes alone
The All itself’s deficient is
Himself deficient and all his.”

The parables that ride the Coptic voice
Are just the same as Luke's for favoured choice,
And yet they lack the details that rejoice
In armour, flattery, accusing word.
They're softer here, a slighter breeze has stirred.
Beloved, the four estates of men are found
In the four Gospels that have been around,
But my poor poet's soul is better bound
In Thomas's insinuations' sound.
Instead of Pharisees and Sadducees
To frown before accusing word that sees
Through parable, I find the unities
Of All in All and so fall on my knees,
The cringing of a dervish and a hound.

68 Jesus said “Blessèd are you when
You’re hated, persecuted men.
When you’re pursued, they’ll find no place.”
69 Jesus said “Blessed are those whose face
Has been ravished but from within.
They are the ones who without sin
Have come to know the Father’s grin.
Blessed are those who hunger for their
Stomach desiring shall be filled.”

The persecutors of this Gospel's page
Are not the outer soldiers in their rage,
But inner doubts and flouts of master mage.
The ravishings of face that Thomas knows
Are not the traits of power on the pose,
But inner eating of the heart to find
No sin upon the tendered and the vined.
The hunger of the Gospel heart is blessed,
Not in a metaphor among the best,
But as a plate of lentils and the bread
That caters to the fish broiled without head.
Beloved, the trinity of spirits here
Refresh the expectations of the ear
Until the blessèd vision shall appear.

70 Jesus said “If you bring out what
Is in you, what you bring unshut
Will save you. If you do not bring
Out what is in you, then the sting
Of what you do not bring out killed
Will destroy you both root and wing.”
71 Jesus said “I’ll destroy this room
And none will be able to build.”

When Jesus spoke of temple in the blast
Of Matthew and of Mark set out to last,
They said he spoke of body in the grave
That could not be held under death as slave.
Beyond the stone, beyond the flesh and bone,
There is an inner temple and a throne.
And these are where the great destruction's done,
The battles shared, the victories are won.
Beloved, destroy with every breath my room,
Rise and acquaint my soul with every doom
The rays of sun and moon beneath the stars
Are able to perform between the bars
Of my existence on the dark of night,
And on the rosy red of morning light.

72 One told him, “Tell my brothers’ doom
To share my dad’s inheritance
With me.” He told him, “Man, what chance
Made me divider of the dance?”
He turned to his disciples and
Asked them, “I’m not among you manned
To make divisions, am I?” 73 Then
Jesus said “The harvest is great
But labourers are few in state.
Pray to the Lord, therefore, to send
Workers into the harvest end.”

The one prayer of this deepest of the host
Of Gospels is the prayer caught in the boast,
To pray that workers might be sent abroad
To harvest in the ripened fields of God.
When Matthew makes a fourfold prayer in grate,
To pray for flight in winter and the state
Of Sabbath, and for enemies come late,
Thomas the doubter and the thoughtful mate
Remembers only workers on the road.
Beloved, send workers in my chambered soul
To set the table with the bread and load
Of fishes I must eat to make my goal,
And I shall sit with You and You with me
To find the lighter supper of the free.

74 He said “O Lord, many now stand
Around the drinking trough at hand
But in the cistern’s naught but sand.”
75 Jesus said “Many at the door
Stand, but only one and no more
Will go into the bridal store.”
76 Jesus said “The Father’s kingdom
Is like a merchant who in sum
Had a lot of goods and who found
A pearl. That merchant wise and sound
Sold all his goods and bought the pearl
Alone for himself to uncurl.
Seek too His sure, eternal part
Where there’s no moth to eat the heart
And no worm to destroy the chart.”

The pearl of price was set so long ago
That sixty generations make a show
Between that day and this, and yet the room
Is still a darkened maze and doubtful tomb
To priest and his parishioner in gloom.
The pearl of price is rather like a man
Beside the fishing boats upon the span
Of Galilee, a traveller on the way
Through the Samaritan towns in the day,
And in Judaean hills as night comes on,
A singular man to which those are drawn
Who slack the status quo of Roman yoke
And turn to praise a merry fellow bloke.
Beloved, the kingdom's too dear for the pay.

77 Jesus said “Indeed I’m the light
Which is above them all in sight.
Indeed I am the all. From me
Did the all come out and to me
Did all intend. Just split a tree
And I am there. Lift up the stone,
And you will find me there alone.”
78 Jesus said “Why have you come out
Into the desert? To see stout
Reed shaken by the wind? To see
A man dressed in silk artistry
Like your kings and your great men’s fee?
They wear the most expensive clothes
But of the Truth none of them knows.”

This Thomas Gospel strikes right on the stone,
And where the other gospels would atone
By speaking of the physical alone,
The literal material enthrone,
The Jesus of this Gospel is aware
Of I-ness and the earth and fire and air.
I jump into that sea of Truth and find
The settled on the earth is not to bind,
But is the way that opens in the tree
And under stone and everywhere I see
The miracle of everyday, the right,
The knowledge of the One and of the light.
Beloved, I sacrifice the universe
And find Me in its entrails and its purse.

79 A woman from the crowd told him
“Happy the womb that gave you vim
And the breasts which suckled your whim.”
He told her, “Happy are those who
Have heard the Father’s word and true
Have kept it. There shall come the days
When you will say ‘Happy the womb
That has not conceived and the room
Of breasts that gave no milk for doom.”

Not for the coming crash of temple lost
And city of Jerusalem then tossed
Does Jesus say these words, though they're embossed
In Luke for those who wavered at the crossed,
But for the hearing of the Father's word
And for the coming out of vacant herd
To enter in the true and find within
The sweeter milk outside the earthly din,
The finer breast of One in unity,
The divine before all the rushing sea.
Beloved, let me be happy through the night
Of empty hopes and dreams and fearful plight
To find in emptiness the fullness where
You are alone on throne beyond the air.

80 Jesus said “He who’s recognized
The world has found body comprised,
But he who’s found the body is
Greater than all the world of fizz.”

Though Jesus in the body cannot be
The God Almighty of eternity,
The body is the place where every man
Finds the divine in universal span.
The face reflects Your face and that alone,
All else is the illusion of a stone.
The search for spirit and the higher sphere
Is empty as the wise know to appear,
But in the body though inert on ground
Is greater than in all the world is found,
Awareness of the I-ness and the True,
The recognition of Myself and You.
Beloved, I spin the body and I kiss
The God it points to before it can miss.

81 Jesus said “Let him who’s got rich
Be king, and let him with a stitch
Of power renounce it at a pitch.”
82 Jesus said “He who’s near me’s near
The fire, and he who’s far from fear
Is far from the Kingdom I rear.

The king embodies kingdom then and now,
In Shakespeare's play the king of France on brow
Has written France, and every other prince
Takes on the name of the land where he'd wince.
Let the rich man be king, I do resign
Myself to every polyp in the wine.
Let everyone with power though of a hair
Renounce it to make plane the power You wear.
Beloved, let kings and powers return to You,
To Your Messiah in the weather-pew,
And let the fire burn brighter for my cue,
Until I jump into the burning wake
And settle in the frying pan at stake
And laugh at all the errors that I make.

83 Jesus said “Reflections are seen
By humankind but the light sheen
Remains hidden in the reflection
Of the light of Father’s confection.
He will appear, but His reflection
Will stay hid by His light’s connexion.”

Reflections of divinity abound
In every face of human that is found,
But those reflections only hide the true
From all the dancing sort of human crew.
The light of Your reflection on the pool
Of human heart and eye, to any fool,
Looks like the passing of the moon and like
The sun that streams a day upon the spike
And sinks into the infinite of sea.
Beloved, remain not hidden more from me,
Or if You stay out of my sight, I see
Still everywhere the footprints that you leave
On mountainside and on the birch's sleeve.
You hide perhaps, but always ride to be.

84 Jesus said “When you see your own
Reflection, then rejoice, don’t groan.
But when you see reflections that
Came into being where you sat
Before you, and that neither die
Nor come to light, then you shall try!”
85 Jesus said “Adam came to be
From a great power and a great fee,
But he did not become worthy
Of you. For had he been worthy,
He should not have died hopelessly.”
86 Jesus said “Foxes have their holes
And birds have nests in trees and poles,
But Son of Man has no place blessed
To lay his head and take a rest.”

The others thought this word was ripe and done
For Judas in his entrance to the won.
But Thomas realized the greater store
Of light upon the fox-den and its floor.
The Son of Man, the ben Adam, remains
Without the institutions of the plains,
With only human heart to be the place
Of meeting with the divine loving face.
Beloved, I seek no temple and no pew,
I try no priesthood for its comely view,
No liturgy of spices and of scent
Upon the music of unworldly went,
And find beneath the barren sky above
A truer temple and a finer love.

87 Jesus said “Wretched is the body
That is dependent on a body,
And wretched is the soul that must
Rely of both of these in dust.”

The two bodies that touch a single soul
Are strange relations in the mingled goal.
The trinity of bodies and of mist
Of soul is something I have never kissed.
If wretched is the body that depends
On body and the soul that in them wends
Relying on the both, then I am blessed
To find a body without such a rest
In body and a soul that takes the best
Of one body alone into the nest.
With body and with soul knit into one
From the two in the breath and dust begun,
I find that wretchedness is gone and done,
And I have passed beyond the thing I guessed.

88 Jesus said “Angels and the prophets
Will come to you to give the soffits
Of things you have. And you too give
Them things that you have where you live
And say to yourselves, ‘When will they
Come and take what is their own prey?’”
89 Jesus said “Why wash the outside
Of the cup? Have you not espied
That he who made the inside’s just
The same one who made outside crust?”

Instead of diatribe on Pharisee,
The washing of the cup in the decree
Of Thomas is that You are hiding where
The daily tasks meet humans in their care.
How many ways there are to hear the word,
Beloved, how many ways to be deterred
From Truth, despite the fact that each breath brings
New baptisms from all the world that sings.
Beloved, take me in prey and as I pray
Wash inside or outside in what You say,
And make creation’s power again in sway
From inside out and outside in to stay
Until the growing light of the new day,
Until the temple of the heavens rings.

90 Jesus said “Come to me, my yoke
Is easy and my ruler’s stroke
Is light, and you will find your rest.”
91 Then they said to him, “Tell us best
Who you are so we might believe
In you.” He told them, “You may view
The sky and earth, but you do not
Recognize who’s before you taught,
And you do not know how to see
This very moment’s mystery.”

How wisely the Christ answers every quest,
How wisely Thomas reports what is best!
The yoke is light if just this moment poses
The meaning of the violets and roses.
I wander through the corridors of time
And stumble here and there upon a rhyme,
While overhead and underfoot the spot
Of moment recognizes what You've taught.
Beloved, if I should raise my head to see,
Or dig beneath the surface a degree,
I'd find this very moment's mystery.
Instead I whirl encumbered with the weight
Of glory hanging over rattled pate,
Encumbered with my welling ecstasy.

92 Jesus said “Look and you will find.
93 “Do not give holy things to dogs,
They’ll throw them out to rust with cogs.
And do not give to pigs your pearls,
Because they’ll trample them like churls.”

How many glories, my Beloved, have You
Given to me, a thousand come in view
Each day I turn about my den and lair!
I turn from You to You and You are there.
How many pearls and holy things have come
From You to me, a dervish dog and bum!
Throw pearls to me, Beloved, such pearls in sum
That I am covered with the shining scum.
Beloved, though I am just a dervish dog,
Who knows not value of the mist from fog,
And wallows in the smell of dank and grog,
I still howl for the pearls, the pearls of sight
That burnished furnished peals of sounding light,
That turn the dog from keening to the night.

94 Said Jesus, “He who seeks shall find,
Who knocks will have an open mind.
95 “If you have money, do not lend
It out for interest, but to spend
On someone who’ll not give it back.”

Allons! The Gospel of Thomas indeed,
Like Roman and like Grecian in their seed,
And the Qur'an, forbids usury's greed.
The Christian of today thinks that the knock
Is for the spirit's teaching on the block,
But this most spirit-filled of Gospels prays
For knocking out of interest in our days.
The right to life is right to fill the new
With work to gain the daily bread and true
Without the growing debt to scar the pew.
The right to life is right to live without
The interest of the banking mob's redoubt.
The right to life is not found on this globe:
They cast lots for the lasting seamless robe.

96 Said Jesus, “The Father’s kingdom
Is like a women who took some
Yeast and put it into her dough
And made large loaves of it to go.
Who has ears let him hear the show.”
97 Jesus said “The kingdom’s like one
Woman with a container done
Full of meal. Walking on the road
Still some distance from her abode,
The handle broke, the meal spilled out
Behind her on the walking route.
She did not notice it at all
Because she did not see the fall.
When she got home she set it down
And it was empty of the brown.”

Beloved, my chambered heart is empty now
After the tour of churches anyhow.
The throne where I had set my trinities,
My idols and my perfumes in the breeze,
Is empty and still waiting for the show
Of You to fill the emptiness in glow.
Beloved, the inner temple with its walls
Of stone still shining under wicked stalls
Late filled with raptures, songs and liturgies,
Is emptied waiting for what You'd endow.
Beloved, I walk again the road that sees
The spilling of my bread still on the go,
And hear the magpie now that flees and calls,
And feel the sun play havoc on my brow.

98 Jesus said “The Father’s kingdom
Is like a man who would have won
A mighty man. In his own home
He lifted sword against the dome
Of his own house to see if his
Hand was strong enough in a whiz.
And then he killed the mighty man.”
99 The disciples said for his plan,
Your brother and mother outside
Are waiting for you to provide.”
He told them, “Those who do the will
Of my Father will fit the bill
To be my brothers and my mum.
It’s they who come in with aplomb
Into my own Father’s kingdom.”

The spirit and the mystic power that pours
Through Thomas and his Gospel at the doors
Does nothing to diminish all the stores
Of other Gospels on the truthful shores.
If every other saying is revised
Expressing the inner and the disguised,
This one remains throughout all ways and means,
The doing of the Father's will that leans
Upon the kingdom with its laws and scenes.
Beloved, I take the will that You send down
And take the ten commandments for the town,
And find in them the mystic grace that fills
Both head and heart and hands with inner stills,
The haven and the temple of the hills.

100 They showed Jesus a golden coin
And said to him, “Come to purloin
Are Caesar’s men after the tax.”
He told them, “Give Caesar the axe
That is his own, and give to God
What belongs to God on the sod
And give me what is mine in rod.

Synoptics fail to mind that Jesus said
Beyond the giving of the gold and bread
To Caesar and to God, there's something spread
For him as well. I learn here to be fed.
Beloved, let every man give to the crown
The glory due to such men of renown,
And let each one give to You of Your own,
And recognize You above every throne.
But let all men give me what's mine alone
As well as giving Jesus snake and stone.
Beloved, I too demand my rightful share
Upon the golden treads of silver stair,
And as I look toward heaven from fatal earth,
I settle under sun in rightful berth.

101 “Whoever does not hate his own
Father and mother as I've shown
Cannot be disciple of mine.
And who does not love mom and dad
As I do cannot, it is sad,
Become a disciple of mine.
For my mother gave me the dross,
But my true gave life without loss.”

The fair commandment does not say to love
Or hate the parent given from above,
But how can any truly honour him
Or her with hate making the honed heart dim?
The question's asked to get attention right
From the start of the famished earthly night.
The hope of having truth eternally,
The weight of what matters in progeny,
Is vain when pinned on the genetic bill.
The true in life is found upon the hill
That's climbed in Olivet, Gethsemane,
And finished in the heart that is set free
Of human obligations and the crime
Of human institutions without rhyme.

102 Jesus said “Woe to Pharisee,
They’re like dog sleeping in the lea
Of the manger of the ox, for
Neither does he eat of the store
Nor does he let the ox eat more.”

Eat and let eat is honoured saying never
Heard on the earth by any fool or clever.
Live and let live alone resounds to sear
The human strife and lordly human fear.
The dog does not eat straw, and yet stands by
To keep the cows from coming in the sty.
Such are all priests and gurus under sky.
The nourishment of heaven is found among
The two or three alone, and in the tongue
Of the lone dervish riding on the sound
Of Scriptures sung beyond the temple ground.
Beloved, though I'm a dervish dog and keep
A vigil on the manger of the deep
Word, let me serve straw to the kine that sleep.

103 Jesus said “Happy is the man
Who knows where the robbers have plan
To break in, so he can get up
And strengthen himself like a tup
And take arms before robbers can.”

I must be happy among earthly men,
And among the celestial in their den,
Since I know what the robbers plan for me
And for the world set in eternity.
They plan to take the oil and corn and make
A temple to the unvirgined in wake
And fry commandment keepers at the stake.
The institutions of men never change,
They never take a different kind of range,
But only buy a better advertisement
Like the red wolf in grandmother's disguisement.
Beloved, I flee to You from every priest
And every pope and poet that's increased
The power of love to support unreleased.

104 They said “Here let’s pray today and
Let us fast also as we’ve planned.”
Jesus said “What sin have I done
Or who striving with me has won?
But when the bridegroom leaves the bride,
Then let them fast and pray and hide.”
105 Jesus said “Everyone that knows
The father and mother that shows
Will be called son of a whore’s blows.”

Indeed the dear lord Jesus knew the way
Of human heart and institution's day.
Any who know the source of nourishing
In heavenly places where the angels sing
Is called a heretic and son of whore.
That only lasts until he is made gore.
Jesus exclaims “What transgression have I
Done to deserve the naked cross in sky?”
The sin is evident: he did not stay
To kiss the toe of the established stray.
If anything's to learn from crucifixion
It's that all must give up the true conviction
And knuckle under to Papal prediction
Or succumb to the Roman sort of stiction.

106 Jesus said, “When you make two one,
You will become of men the son,
And when you say ‘Mountain, get lost,’
It will move, in the sea be tossed.”

Synoptics jump into the sea to take
The mountain slide among the waves in wake.
But Thomas knows the truth, the hill and sea
In earth and water must be made on glee.
The gates of such awareness and of truth
Must overcome the wanderings of youth.
The two are joined in one, and for Your sake
The I-ness of my being at the stake
Must disappear beneath the shining wave.
The stuttering I must learn to be brave
Beneath the baptism, the death of slave.
Beloved, I touch the mountain where I live,
And bend to kiss the quartzite of my sieve,
And finally learn to take what You give.

107 Jesus said “The kingdom is like
A shepherd who was given strike
Over a hundred sheep. But one,
The largest, went astray, the bum.
He left the ninety and the nine
Sheep and looked for the one benign
Until he found it. Since he went
To such trouble he told the bent
Sheep, ‘I care more indeed for you
Than for the ninety-nine ones true.’”
108 Jesus said “Everyone who drinks
From my mouth will become in chinks
Like me. I myself shall become
That one, and hidden things in sum
Will be revealed to him to hum.”

The lost sheep is not that poor drunkard left
Among the dregs and yet one not bereft,
But loved above all by Yourself and strain.
It is the hidden treasure in the main
Of every human heart, the one that's found
Only when all else left upon the ground
Is shut abandoned from the heavenly sound.
That hidden treasure, my Beloved, is You
Set in the golden circlet of the pew
Within the stony chamber of the heart,
The infinite in human story's part.
Beloved, I leave the trinkets on the lawn
And turn into the darkness and the dawn
With empty hand and heart to try You on.

109 Jesus said “The kingdom is like
A man who had a hidden strike
Of treasure in his field and did
Not know about the treasure hid.
After he died his son was heir.
The son not knowing sold his share.
The one who bought it went and ploughed
And found the treasure disendowed.
He started lending money out
At interest to those he’d not flout.”
110 Jesus said “Who find the world and
Becomes rich, let him out of hand
Renounce the world and so remand.”
111 Jesus said “The heavens and earth will
Be rolled up and for your eyes still.
But who lives from the Living One
Will not see death when that is done.”
Does Jesus not say “Everyone
Who finds himself is better spun
Than the world in what it has done?”
112 Jesus said “Woe to the flesh that
Depends on the soul where it sat,
Woe to the soul that depends on
The flesh at both evening or dawn.”
113 His disciples asked him to say
“When will the kingdom come to stay?”
“It will not come by waiting it.
It’s not a matter of the fit
To say ‘It’s here’ or say ‘It’s there.’
Rather the Father’s kingdom’s spread
Out on the earth, and yet for dread
Men do not see it in their care.”

The kingdom is among you, not within,
Is the message You sent without a din.
The man looks for himself in hour and bin,
But how can any man not find himself?
No man is lost from his own view like elf.
The kingdom is spread out on every breath,
And overwhelms both earthly life and death.
None can escape that Self that You provide,
None can rise up beneath the load of pride.
Beloved, I take the kingdom for my hand
Is made in the king's shape and so is planned.
The shape of human body is the shape
Of the divine kingdom strutted in crepe,
And there's not flight from it in any cape.

114 Simon Peter said to him, “Let
Mary leave us for women get
No worthy place in life to set.”
Jesus said “I myself shall lead
Her to make of a male indeed,
So she too may become a living
Spirit like you males in your giving.
For every woman who will make
Herself a male and for my sake
Will enter in the kingdom come
From heaven and that shall be the sum.

From one there must be two, from two the One,
And in that saying everything is done.
There is no man or woman in the crew,
But all is all and all is one in You.
When Mary graced the meadows of the sweet,
She did not come there for Peter's defeat,
Nor did she show herself in her retreat
To be either a woman incomplete
Or man to favour men in Peter's seat.
The kingdom is a king, and there's the rub:
All else is sent to sea in an old tub.
Beloved, I sail to heaven and come back
Before the wind upon my sail grows slack,
Before the wind in my sail grows a stack.

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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