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    Temple of the Heart and Other Christian Poems
    Temple of the Heart and Other Christian Poems
    Temple of the Heart and Other Christian Poems
    Ebook142 pages1 hour

    Temple of the Heart and Other Christian Poems

    By Alfred D. Byrd

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    About this ebook

    Here is a collection of poems on faith, hope, and charity -- the virtues that we live out when we're rooted in God. Our Creator's story appears in epics of the Bible and in lyrics of doubt and faith emerging into praise of the One Who is Light and Love. Creation takes place, a man of faith leaves home for an unknown land, a community of slaves becomes a people of the Law, a temple is raised and then destroyed, the Deliverer comes with new life for the world, the world awaits judgment and renewal -- these are accounts that enable us to walk as members of a people of faith and service. When we are gathered together as one before our Sovereign, we form a temple of the heart, greater than any earthly temple, in which God dwells forevermore. May these poems be used from on high to bless you with growth in grace and knowledge of the truth.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAlfred D. Byrd
    Release dateAug 29, 2016
    ISBN9781370681075
    Temple of the Heart and Other Christian Poems
    Author

    Alfred D. Byrd

    I'm a graduate of Hazel Park High School, Hazel Park MI, and I've earned a B. S. in Medical Technology at Michigan State University and an M. S. in Microbiology at the University of Kentucky.My interests are Christian theology and history, Civil War history, science fiction, and fantasy. I've published a number of works, in prose or in epic verse, on these subjects.A number of my works are available from Amazon and other major on-line book distributors. I've also sold four short stories or novellas to science fiction or fantasy anthologies.

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      Book preview

      Temple of the Heart and Other Christian Poems - Alfred D. Byrd

      TEMPLE OF THE HEART

      and Other Christian Poems

      Alfred D. Byrd

      Temple of the Heart and Other Christian Poems

      Copyright © 2016 Alfred D. Byrd

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      Thank you for downloading this ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to your favorite ebook retailer to discover other works by this author. Thank youfor your support.

      Table of Contents

      An Alliterative Haggadah

      Athaliah

      Atonement

      Autumn

      David in Exile

      An Empty Shell

      The Fullness of Life

      Haiku Proverbs

      The Highest Place

      His Love for His Lost Sheep

      In Many Ways

      Joseph in Egypt

      A Mound in Mosul

      The One Who Learns

      Nightfall over Nineveh

      The Purpose of Life

      A Song of Angels

      Supper of the Birds

      Temple of the Heart

      Theophany

      Three Graves in Ephraim

      A Wall at Rabbah

      When Neither Space Nor Time

      AN ALLITERATIVE HAGGADAH

      In the seder at Passover, Haggadah is the telling of God’s dealings with Israel from Abram’s call to leave Ur to Solomon’s consecration of his temple — Jewish history’s most joyous event — with a focus on God’s delivering the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt. It’s a mitzvah, a fulfillment of holy obligation to God, for the seder’s head to tell Haggadah as fully as one can. Here’s a version of Haggadah in the ancient English meter of alliterative verse for whoever may feel led to use it in study or in celebration of God’s blessings to us. May it bless you to read this poem as it has blessed me to write it.

      Ancient Israel entered our knowledge

      Through one who welcomed a word from our God.

      In an age of idols, in Ur of Sumer,

      Abraham answered urgent instructions

      To relent from his love for the land of his birth

      And to pace a path of perils and doubts

      In hope of a home of heaven’s choosing.

      Through guidance from God — through goading, at times—

      He came to Canaan, recast from then on

      By his line of light as the Land of Promise.

      He became through coming at the call of God

      The Father of Faith and founder of nations.

      The Father of Faith confided his birthright

      By oath to Isaac, his offspring by marriage.

      Isaac, as ordered, was offered to heaven

      As a gift to his God, but regained through a ram,

      Unsullied substitute, saving the chosen;

      And Isaac ended by adding to Jacob,

      A trickster and tramp, the trust of the Land.

      That son, though second, received the birthright

      Confirmed to the first, whom he fooled two times,

      But then had to hide from one hurt for all time.

      The trickster was trapped by tricks of his own

      And ought to have ended in exile — but God

      Recalled him to Canaan and came in the night

      To fight him as foe, yet fill him with hope

      Of leaving a line that would live forever.

      Deceiver received as a sign of blessing

      A name announcing renewal of purpose:

      Israel honored an outlaw reformed

      With a prize of praise as a prince of God.

      The line of the Land would leave for Egypt

      Because of conflict from coldness of heart

      Of brother for brother. The brides of Jacob

      Were sisters who saw their siblings as rivals;

      The malice of mothers was mirrored in sons.

      For Joseph, the gentle, jealousy festered,

      Bringing his brothers to break up their home

      By selling their sibling to serve as a slave,

      The lowest of low in a land of gods.

      In Egypt, however, his honor returned

      When he drew from a dream, the dread of a king,

      A plan to replace the plight of famine

      With excess to eat for the ends of the world.

      When he rose in rank to rule by the king,

      He called his kindred to come where he lived—

      He haled the Hebrews, made holy to God,

      To settle in safety for seasons of peace.

      The joy of Joseph in joining kindred

      Was only an instant in ages to come.

      It would turn in time to a tale of grief.

      When he met his demise, there mounted the throne

      A king who recalled no kindness of Joseph’s

      And blighted his blessing with a blow to freedom.

      Being filled with fear of fighting to come,

      He hated the Hebrews, though holy to God.

      They would learn, he believed, how to lift a sword

      To threaten his throne — to throw it to chaos!

      To keep his kingdom from conquest by guests,

      He humbled the Hebrews to holding the status

      Of livestock that lived in the laws of Egypt

      As slaves, all but slime, who would slink to their beds

      And tell with their tears a tale of their loss.

      In heaven there heard their howls of dismay

      One moved by mercy — the Maker of all.

      Our God regathered those given to grief

      By sending a son as a sign of hope

      To release the line that was loved by God

      From service to sin — the sayings of masters.

      The law of the land was lethal to him:

      A son of servants, it said, "must be slain

      To keep the kingdom from conquest within."

      His mother was moved by demands of love

      To consign her son, concealed in a chest,

      To riding the river to ruin or hope.

      A master's mercy moved him to safety:

      A princess proffered reprieve to the son,

      Who, raised from the reeds, was reared as her own.

      She made him Moses to remind the world:

      A baby was borne to rebirth on the waves.

      Imbued with beauty by birth and by home,

      The son of servants, now seen as a prince,

      Was allowed to learn the lore of Egypt,

      Making him master of men and of gods.

      He bore his burden of beauty with grace

      Until, being told the tale of his birth,

      He put compassion for the poor and weak

      Ahead of his hopes for heights of glory.

      Seeing a servant assaulted by whip,

      The son of servants summoned his courage

      To save the servant from sorrow and grief;

      But, fired by fury to fight unwisely,

      Moses would murder a man of the king

      And must leave the land, his life now forfeit,

      To sigh in the sand as a son of exile.

      He lived a whole life in a land of thirst

      Before he would find what he faced for God.

      The shearing of sheep was his share in life

      When he led his lambs to look for forage.

      Heading for highlands where he hoped for grass,

      He witnessed wonders that woke him from doubt.

      A bush was burning, but bore no damage

      From fire that had formed a furnace of light.

      The One Who awoke the worlds to being

      Had sent him a sign — was saying the Name:

      "I am who I am, the only, the true.

      I have heard the hope of households of slaves

      For release from lives that they live in vain—

      For a life of love on land of their own.

      To give them this gift, you must go back home

      And call to account the king of Egypt:

      ‘Release my loved ones to live in freedom,

      Or face misfortune from the fire who speaks.’

      If you feel unfit to face him alone,

      Then bring, to be brave, your brother, Aaron,

      To give for his God his guidance to you."

      The guidance of God, forgiving, but clear,

      Was moving Moses to meet what he feared.

      He went from wonders to work for his God

      By taking tidings of a test of heart

      To Pharaoh, his foe, though favored in youth

      For owning the awe that honors a prince.

      When he came to court to call for freedom,

      Moses remembered the mountain of pride

      Erected by rulers from the realm of the stars

      To bear them above the baseness of mortals.

      "Silence, you subjects! You’re seeing the king.

      By descent from the sun, he’s the son of Ra."

      The mouth of Moses, mentioning freedom,

      Angered and outraged the offspring of gods.

      In fury, Pharaoh defied his Maker,

      Embittered bondage of bearers of loads,

      And hurled the herald, though holy to God,

      From court to courtyard to come to the street.

      The herald was hurt by hate from a friend

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