Sunday, February 28, 2010

Judas Looked into HIS Eyes

To Judas (Upon Receiving Thirty Pieces)

Thirty pieces of silver.
Enough to sell the only one who ever cared.
Although I suspect it wasn't for the money,
You managed well, and always saw ends meet.

You had hoped for so much more.
An end to the persecution forever,
At last, we could be free
And victorious in our conquests!

But those were the hopes of man.
And he was different from the men you knew,
One look in his eyes told you that.
One look, and you could not stay the same.

So much potential in this teacher.
So much to offer - the Rabbi - the Messiah,
Our people have watied so long,
Now vengeance is - will be ours!

Except that he mentions nothing of revenge.
No tales of heroic deeds,
No promises of riches to come,
Only a gentle urging to love one another,
And be a servant to all in need.
My God, he sups with tax collectors and prostitutes
And embraces the unclean.
How "unprincely".
Not at all how you would have him act.
Could you have been wrong?
Could you all have been wrong?

One final opportunity in the Holy City,
Surely now was the time for action,
And yet, he lowers himself to wash the feet of others.

What other choice did you have?
Better to end the charade now and cut losses.
"Betrayed With A Kiss", was how he put it.
And even now, as the noose tightens,
      there is justification for every action you took.

But those eyes...those eyes....


-- Ronnie Hicks

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Lenten Food for Thought

Rock of ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee;
Let the water and the blood
From thy side a healing flood,
Be of sin the double cure,
Cleanse me from its guilt and power.

Should my tears for ever flow,
Should my zeal no langour know,
All for sin could not atone:
Thou must save and thou alone;
In my hand no price I bring,
Simply to thy Cross I cling.

While I draw this fleeting breath,
When mine eyelids close I death,
When I rise to worlds unkown
And behold thee on thy throne
Rock of ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.

--A. M. Toplady, 1776

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Spring: Time of Mud

Two Tramps in Mud Time
Robert Frost (1934)


Out of the mud two strangers came
And caught me splitting wood in the yard,
And one of them put me off my aim
By hailing cheerily “Hit them hard!”
I knew pretty well why he dropped behind
And let the other go on a way.
I knew pretty well what he had in mind:
He wanted to take my job for pay.


Good blocks of beech it was I split,
As large around as the chopping block;
And every piece I squarely hit
Fell splinterless as a cloven rock.
The blows that a life of self-control
Spares to strike for the common good
That day, giving a loose to my soul,
I spent on the unimportant wood.


The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You’re one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you’re two months back in the middle of March.


A bluebird comes tenderly up to alight
And fronts the wind to unruffle a plume
His song so pitched as not to excite
A single flower as yet to bloom.
It is snowing a flake: and he half knew
Winter was only playing possum.
Except in color he isn’t blue,
But he wouldn’t advise a thing to blossom.


The water for which we may have to look
In summertime with a witching wand,
In every wheel rut’s now a brook,
In every print of a hoof a pond.
Be glad of water, but don’t forget
The lurking frost in the earth beneath
That will steal forth after the sun is set
And show on the water its crystal teeth.


The time when most I loved my task
These two must make me love it more
By coming with what they came to ask.
You’d think I never had felt before
The weight of an axhead poised aloft,
The grip on earth of outspread feet.
The life of muscles rocking soft
And smooth and moist in vernal heat.


Out of the woods two hulking tramps
(From sleeping God knows where last night,
But not long since in the lumber camps.)
They thought all chopping was theirs of right.
Men of the woods and lumberjacks,
They judged me by their appropriate tool.
Except as a fellow handled an ax,
They had no way of knowing a fool.


Nothing on either side was said.
They knew they had but to stay their stay
And all their logic would fill my head:
As that I had no right to play
With what was another man’s work for gain.
My right might be love but theirs was need.
And where the two exist in twain
Theirs was the better right — agreed.


But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For heaven and the future’s sakes.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

8 Ways to Stimulate Creative Writing

  1. Three Minute Writing:  Students are given a topic (or title) with the understanding that they only have three minutes in which to write on the topic.
  2. You're Not Yourself Today:  In this writing activity students are told they are not themselves today, they will become someone else. Prepare index cards with different roles. Example: "You're not yourself today.... you are a pirate looking for treasure on a deserted island."
  3. Pass A Story:  Pass a piece of paper with an opening sentence or paragraph on it. Students add a few more sentences in the time allotted and then pass it on to another student. Students continue adding to the story until everyone has had an opportunity to write a part of the story. Read the final story aloud.
  4. Dear Teacher:  Give students the opportunity to develop letter-writing skills. Assign a topic for them to write a letter to the teacher, such as classroom suggestions, something  they like about you, etc.
  5. Roll a Story:  A numbered die is used to correspond with titles of possible stories to write. Students roll the die to determine which title they will be using for their creative story.
  6. Grab Bags:  Three paper lunch bags will be needed for this activity. Label each with the following: setting, character and conflict. Fill each paper bag with index cards, each containing an example of the above mentioned items. Put these cards into the corresponding bags. Students must choose a setting card, a character card and a conflict card.
  7. Did you Know?:  This activity allows students to become the experts about a specific topic. Students should choose something they are knowledgeable about. The purpose in this exercise is to inform classmates through their writing.
  8. Comment Please:  This activity can be implemented after students have had time to polish their stories beyond the first draft stage. Students will read their work aloud and classmates will be given the opportunity to give positive comments about the work. Only positive comments and questions for clarification of what was written may be stated.

    Read about these activities here.

INDEX of Topics at Students, Publish Here!


Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Blessed is the Messenger!

Blessed is the Messenger who came bearing
a great peace. By the mercy of His Father,
He lowered Himself to us. Our own debts
He did not take up to Him. He reconciled
His Lordship with His servants.
Glory to Your Dawn, divine and human!
Glorious is the Wise One, Who allied and joined
Divinity with humanity,
one from the height and the other from the depth.
He mingled the natures like pigments
and an image came into being: the God-man.
O Zealous One who saw Adam
who had become dust and the accursed serpent
devouring him. Reality dwelt
in what had lost its flavor. He made him salt
by which the cursed serpent would be blinded,
Blessed is the Compassionate One Who saw, next to paradise,
the lance that barred the way
to the Tree of Life. He came to take up
the body that would be struck so that by the opening in His side
He might break through the way into paradise.
Glorious is the Compassionate One Who did not use
violence, and without force,
by wisdom He was victorious.
Glory to Your Dawn, divine and human!


--St. Ephraim the Syrian
Hymn 8 On the Nativity 1-5

Monday, February 8, 2010

Caught by the Fisher of Men

The Fisher of Men
Ted McNabb

At the heart of that which love is truly is
Persistence as steady as the stillness
Into which the stars were breathed and have their being.
It is the thin, taut line quivering
With the terror of my having been caught
By the very thing for which I hunger most.
Cast from beyond time into perfect time
Touching lightly the smooth skin of the momentary eddy
In the loud and rushing waters in which I live,
My heart saw and leaped to seize and run
Only to find I had been seized
My inmost being barbed and bleeding
Lashing my life down current
For all I was worth,
Straining against some unseen Master
Holding the other end.
Here pulling me back
And here letting the line run
With my running;
Steady, steady the strong thin line never truly slackens.
The rapid years slide over me
Until I grow blessedly weary
And am gently drawn to land,
Unhooked from the steady line
To be held in steady hands.