The Resurrection and the Life – 16th May 2022

 The Resurrection and the Life

 – 16^th May 2022

 

Twas Thor’s Day, cold and Autumnal,

Cone Man contemplated life’s twilight years.

Youthful dreams, leavened by many a fall,

Wasted time the worst of his fears.

 

Five and twenty years in librarianship vested,

Only to see this career sprawl in the dust.

By life’s disappointments sorely tested,

Continue to strive middle aged males must.

 

Others had far better reason to despair,

Martha and Mary, sisters of poor dead Lazarus.

Man of their family, their brother, their care,

Lazarus lay in his tomb making no fuss.[1]

 

Their old world was ending,

And indeed, would truly end.

Their new world was pending,

The temple’s curtain it would rend.[2]

 

Bethany, Jesus finally approached,

“Lord, if you had been here,

My brother would not have died.”

Martha and Mary tearfully reproached.[3]

“Lazarus, come out.”[4] Jesus cried,

From the opened tomb Lazarus approached.[5]

 

“I am the resurrection and the life.”[6]

 

 

 

© Craig Turney

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[1] John 11:17

[2] Mark 15:38

[3] John 11:21;33

[4] John 11:43

[5] John 11:44

[6] John 11:25

The Way and the Truth and the Life – 6th May 2022

 The Way and the Truth and the Life – 6^th May 2022

 

Twas Wodin's Day, in a world worrisome,

Lon, La Tes Tribe’s Lord,

Paid a mighty premium,

Pouring wealth from his hefty hoard,

Unleashing outraged pandemonium,

Lon was now Twitter’s Overlord.

 

Lon's acquisition prompted wild hope,

Others expressed wary derision.

‘Free Speech’ party saw Lon as their Pope,

‘Social Justice’ saw a source of division.

 

Lon believed Twitterverse was big enough,

To accommodate myriad clashing visions.

'Social Justice' thought 'Free Speech" hateful, rough,

'Free Speech' thought 'Social Justice' enslaved to fickle fashions.

Both parties thought the other full of villains,

Neither party understood opposing passions.

 

None doubted that men lied,

Or truthfully spoke nonsense.

Men whose truthfulness was their pride,

Were often misinformed, ignorant or dense.

 

Men could not make perjury a hanging offense,

Men had to err on the safe side.

Politicians showed uncommon common sense:

Enact capital punishment for perjury, and you died.

 

“So” Cone Man reflected,

“The question is not who is lying,

but who is telling the truth?

And how to prove that you’re not lying?”

 

“Statements” he shrugged,

“The greater they come, the harder they fall”.

The harsh reality was simple and rugged:

Absolute claims were divine truth or demonic gall.

One absolute statement surmounted them all,

Jesus was who he claimed, or a madman or fiend.

 

“I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me”.[1]

 

© Craig Turney

 

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[1] John 14:6

The Gate – 3rd May 2022

 The Gate – 3^rd May 2022

 

Twas the Day of Mars, a marching day,

Cone Man engaged in an epic journey.

Seeking riches, making his manly way,

By rail canoe to Wellesley’s Town.

 

Seeking a post at the Hall of Wisdom,

Famous House of Chief Turning Bull.

Sadly, frustrated in this bid for freedom,

Finding no room at the Inn.

 

Keeping his manly calm,

Returning to the Land of the Huttites,

He next employed his considerable charm,

Offering his services to the Salvationites.

Their chieftainess, to his alarm,

Was too engaged with Managerites.

Twice finding the gate closed,

Cone Man wondered “Where is the gate?”

The “Gate”, was a person, he supposed,

If some person would let him in, great!

 

Thwarted in his search for the earthly “gate”,

Realising worldly position was temporal.

Ultimately needing a post in the Eternal Estate,

He’d have to find the One True “Gate” for real.

 

A long time ago, in a land far away,

A carpenter from Nazareth claimed:

“I am the gate,

whoever enters through me will be saved.”[1]

 

© Craig Turney

 

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[1] John 10:9

The Light of the World – 2nd May 2022

The Light of the World – 2^nd May 2022

 

Cone Man’s alarm rang too soon,

On the Day of the Moon.

Yet face the week he must,

Before more time turned to dust.

 

Time waited for no man, nor his game,

Cone Man’s body out of bed he lugged.

Thirty years earlier he’d pulled his weary frame,

Out of bed, when younger and more rugged.

“The more things change, the more they are the same”,

The Gallic tribe wryly shrugged.

 

Darkness cast a long shadow,

Over a troubled world.

Conquest, War, Famine and Death,[1]

Upon the Earth were hurled.

 

Political leaders tried all they knew,

Financial wizards were glum.

Looking around, they felt blue,

Seeking security at conference and forum.

 

Lights were going out all over Europe,

Particularly where there was no gas.

Many a chieftain tried to create hope,

Only to find that events made them an ass.

 

Darkness, try as it might, couldn’t extinguish,

One remaining, shining, radiant light.[2]

A still small voice[3] cried to men in their anguish:

“I am the light of the world.”[4]

 

© Craig Turney

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[1] Revelations 6: 1-8

[2] John 1:5

[3] 1 Kings 19: 12

[4] John 8:12

The Bread of Life – 29th April 2022

 The Bread of Life – 29^th April 2022

 

Twas Freya’s Day, Summery Autumnal day,

Autumn so mild Cone Man could not recall.

Good sunshine could not be thrown away,

Cone Man and his tribe had a ball.

 

Racing to the beach, they ate,

Drank and basked in the sun.

Children built a sandcastle great,

Tide sweeping it away when done.

 

Feijoas from his tree, fell late,

Feijoas harvested were juicy and sweet.

Pruning, fertilizer, watering, were great,

Improving yield and providing a treat.

 

Cone Man consumed Feijoas,

Gave away Feijoas,

Made jam out of Feijoas,

Bought quart jars to preserve Feijoas.

Struggling, like Joseph in Egypt,

To store this bountiful harvest.

 

Joseph struggled with surplus wheat,

Knowing that after seven years of abundance,

Famine would come, Egypt would feel the heat,[1]

All the world would to Egypt would advance.

 

Jacob had long believed Joseph was dead,

Facing starvation, to Egypt he sent his sons.[2]

Ten brothers set out in search of bread,

Benjamin remained – second of Rachel’s sons.[3]

 

Twas a wondrous tale:

Brothers searched for wheat to make bread,

And found a brother returned from the dead.

A man by his brothers rejected,

Became the man Egypt respected.

Men sought wheat, for bread, for life,

One day another rejected man would bring

The Bread of Life.

 

© Craig Turney

 

 

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[1] Genesis 41: 28-32

[2] Genesis 42:1-2

[3] Genesis 35: 16-18

Bonfire of Verses – 28th April 2022

 Bonfire of Verses – 28^th April 2022

 

Twas Wodin's Day, wintry the weather,

Cone Man, prone to daydream,

Struggled to pull thoughts together,

Before dreams became more extreme.

 

Movement should never be confused with action,

Twas true, but movement could break a reverie.

Walking, even in no direction,

Was the way out the Desert of Apathy.

 

Walking to the Working Man’s Club,

Cone Man reflected:

Anger was superior to angst,

Action was superior to anger.

Planning, superior to mindless action

- without a plan nothing happens;[1]

Plans fail for lack of counsel,

but with many advisers they succeed;[2]

Determination, often the difference

between success and failure.

 

Anger's sword stuck morose flint,

Sprang sparks of illumination,

Firing kindling of inspiration,

Inspiration grew into flaming verse.

 

Mind's resurrection moved the stone,

Breaking free of procrastination's reverses.

Darkness no longer chilled him to the bone,

Warmed by this blazing bonfire of verses.

 

© Craig Turney

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[1] Bonaparte, Napoleon.

[2] Proverbs 15:22

An Age of Fools – 1st April 2022

 An Age of Fools – 1^st April 2022 

Twas the annual Day of Fools,

A day permitting a practical joke.

Till mid-day you could break the rules,

After that you became the joke.

 

Celebrated by Europeans since the 17^th century,

Origin of this tradition remained unknown.

Cone Man suspected it was brief frivolity,

After Northern mid-March wheat crop sown.

 

The Day of Fools seemed redundant,

Out of place in a Year of Fools.

Inflation raging, tribal leaders were unrepentant,

Currencies in turmoil, tribes breaking financial rules.

 

Angst wracked the Stars and Stripes Tribe,

Looking for leadership, they saw a weak chieftain.

Enthralled by the counsel of mad, bad advisors,

Suppressing domestic oil production,

While quarreling with foreign oil suppliers,

Precipitating economic destruction.

 

Poorly advised too, was the Bear Tribe’s chieftain.

Uninformed by sycophantic advisors that:

Crane Tribe was determined to resist;

Europe would help them to resist;

Bear Tribe’s army could not persist;

More Bear Tribe warriors would have to enlist;

 

Bear Tribe’s chieftain was a ruthless realist,

Ruthlessness, however, led advisors to lie to him.

Now subservient to Dragon Tribe to exist,

He surveyed the future, and it was grim.

 

Drinking red Wolf’s Blood wine, Cone Man sighed:

“A Day of Fools in an Age of Fools …”

 

© Craig Turney