O Lord, creation sings Your praises loud:
The smallest atom to the highest star!
And sentient creatures fall before You bowed,
O mighty God, how wondrous great You are!
The works Your fingers made—how high and great!—
But man with sin has tarnished and has marred
The image that You left is obfuscate!
Each human bears Your image but is bent.
Your Spirit comes to fill us, make us straight!
But we are warped and cannot give assent.
O help us Lord, Creator of all days!
Take us to make our heart to be unbent!
Renew our sluggish hearts, focus our gaze,
To see You only—endless praise!
- D. Benning
Saturday, June 16, 2018
Friday, June 15, 2018
To Him Who Loves Us
To Him Who loves us, freeing us from sins,
Who washed us in His blood and made us kings
And priests—a holy kingdom without end!—
Unto His God and Father praise to bring.
To Him be glory—let creation sing—
Dominion, rule, and might are His also
Let Heaven, earth, and seas—and everything—
Give praise to Him from Whom all blessings flow.
And He shall come, and all shall know and then bow low!
- D. Benning
A Spenserian Stanza based on Revelation 1:5 - 7.
Who washed us in His blood and made us kings
And priests—a holy kingdom without end!—
Unto His God and Father praise to bring.
To Him be glory—let creation sing—
Dominion, rule, and might are His also
Let Heaven, earth, and seas—and everything—
Give praise to Him from Whom all blessings flow.
And He shall come, and all shall know and then bow low!
- D. Benning
A Spenserian Stanza based on Revelation 1:5 - 7.
Thursday, June 14, 2018
O Summertime!
What if Summertime was rewritten in a Spenserian Stanza?
O Summertime, with easy living there,
The fish are jumping and the cotton high
Your mom is pretty and your dad has flare
So hush now, baby, don't you raise a cry.
Now soon you'll rise up, spread your wings and fly.
But till that morning when we stand by you,
Then spread your wings and rise from earth to sky!
And there is nothing that can e'er break through!
This Summertime, a portal and a door unto!
- D. Benning
O Summertime, with easy living there,
The fish are jumping and the cotton high
Your mom is pretty and your dad has flare
So hush now, baby, don't you raise a cry.
Now soon you'll rise up, spread your wings and fly.
But till that morning when we stand by you,
Then spread your wings and rise from earth to sky!
And there is nothing that can e'er break through!
This Summertime, a portal and a door unto!
- D. Benning
I Sing of Autumn
I sing of Autumn and her sister Fall:
As days grow short and Summer speeds away,
And captures dying leaves against the wall,
She comes most gently, bit by bit each day
Till Summer's languid hold and heat decay.
Then banners flung, unfurled against the sky,
Bedecked in colors, sights, and sounds, display
The passing of fair Summer's long "Good-bye"—
A glorious emblem heralding Winter's battle cry!
- D. Benning
As days grow short and Summer speeds away,
And captures dying leaves against the wall,
She comes most gently, bit by bit each day
Till Summer's languid hold and heat decay.
Then banners flung, unfurled against the sky,
Bedecked in colors, sights, and sounds, display
The passing of fair Summer's long "Good-bye"—
A glorious emblem heralding Winter's battle cry!
- D. Benning
Wednesday, June 13, 2018
O Autumn, Come!
O Autumn, come and quench the heat of day,
The stifling blaze of Summer's austere eye.
She came with joy and merriment away
With leafy green and promised blue of sky.
But Days grew long and hot and choked with dust
And smoke! Her promised fruit can't satisfy.
The fickle winds, the soot and parched earth crust,
The shrinking lakes in sun-baked lands and hills,
The tattered leaves, most faded brown and rust,
All long for Autumn's winds and cooling thrills!
Set air to crisp; enliven hearts and minds!
Bring rain and brisk with frosty nighttime chills!
With colored leaves and freshness all entwined,
She paints her joyful masterpiece unsigned.
D. Benning
The stifling blaze of Summer's austere eye.
She came with joy and merriment away
With leafy green and promised blue of sky.
But Days grew long and hot and choked with dust
And smoke! Her promised fruit can't satisfy.
The fickle winds, the soot and parched earth crust,
The shrinking lakes in sun-baked lands and hills,
The tattered leaves, most faded brown and rust,
All long for Autumn's winds and cooling thrills!
Set air to crisp; enliven hearts and minds!
Bring rain and brisk with frosty nighttime chills!
With colored leaves and freshness all entwined,
She paints her joyful masterpiece unsigned.
D. Benning
Tuesday, June 12, 2018
O Summertime!
 |
| Knaresborough England, Sherry Lynn |
Enchanted time with leafy lace,
Whose squeeze of heat makes days grow long,
Whose nights are warm and filled with song,
Yes, your embrace which long held sway,
Infused each bloom and flow'ry spray,
Has now grown weak and trending frail;
Your short'ning days with colors pale.
You grasp at time but days rush past,
Leaves tired of life soon brown are massed.
Yet vainly you would try to stall,
The coming footsteps of the Fall
Or Autumn with her captive hue—
When with one blow your works shall strew.
O Summer, you must give way soon,
And Nature shall to Fall atune!
- D. Benning
 |
| Tree Lover's Collection, Sherry Lynn |
Monday, June 11, 2018
On Eagle's Wings
Oh, how my heart with sin was once waylaid:
Fettered to earthly cares
and woe,
Caught in a dark'ning
shade,
No joys to know—
Dismayed!
But see!
How life within
Me rises up so free,
Answ'ring to Thee, the
Great Amen!
Capture my heart and let
me fly to Thee.
Hast thou not known or
heard about this Lord:
He fainteth not nor ever
tires.
Youths may then fall by sword
Or lay in briars
Ignored.
Yet wait
Upon His Name;
With eagle wings
lightweight,
His praise thy strength shall
then acclaim.
Mount up with joy and fly
to Him so great!
- D. Benning
A small exercise imitating George Herbert's Easter Wings.
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