YouTube - Johnny Cash Hurt

YouTube - Johnny Cash Hurt: Odd though it may seem when you just listen to the words, Johnny Cash has really done something with both the articulation and the video production of "Hurt".

Compare it (but don't play the video for your kids) to the Nine Inch Nails original "Hurt."

I can't believe I'm doing this, and you should note carefully that this is not a cover of the same song, but you should consider the possibility that Christina Aguilera's "Hurt" is actually on point with the same themes, only in a more simplified, obvious, and prosy way (like so much contemporary pop, it trades on a dressed-up artificial artlessness). But there's really something in this, albet not so much as in Cash's version of the Nine Inch Nails song.


If that's all wearing you out, I'm here for you! Check out this classic performance of "Ring of Fire" from 1968. A lot of what is already in this song, for Cash, is going to be in "Hurt" eventually....

some more free verse . . . a walk on the Dark Side

Up on your Paradise Lost? If you're up on your Heidegger, too, then between "What Milton Saw" and "Disclosure" you may be piecing together a map. . . .

What Milton saw descending on a chain
 from chaos through the spheres
  that stood to watch
  (this tiger) from that height
 that towered (as he loomed) above the garden
Still remains; his mouth is full of ashes, mixed with blood
 some loving father offered for his child
  to keep possession
  (mother too) of this his sole
 embodied representative on earth—
Pretenders, errant, children left alone
 in wondering on hilltops
  what that taste
  (our silence) on our tongue,
 our gorges rising (as we look) to see
Perfection shaming us for letting be.

PGE  3-13-2008

"We Know Our God": a hymn

Did I mention hymns? Why, yes, I did. I've not attempted much in the way of hymn writing: my path to poetry was not through music, and while I can sing the words well enough to tell if they fit, it's only in certain metres that I like the results well enough as verse that I would consider showing them as mine. It's just--singing is different from reading, writing, or speaking. I love to sing, but the way one writes verse to be sung is just different from poetry as I practice it, usually.

Just the same, I do try it occasionally. Here's one I wrote a little while ago, and I don't think it's terrible:

We Know Our God

We know our God has called us here,
 We know that He will care
For every song we raise to Him,
 And every word in prayer.

We know our God has walked with us,
 And knows our weakness well:
He gives us strength to rise above
 The height from which we fell.

We know that He is in this place,
 For He has promised all
That, where His Son is lifted up,
 He hears us and we’ll call.

We know our Christ has been with us,
 And lived and died to save;
To steal us out of Satan’s grasp,
 He leads us from the grave.

He leads us up, He leads us out—
 He rose, so we will go
Where He has led us, live or dead:
 He’ll call, and we will know.

We’ll know our God when He is here,
 His face, His hands, His voice—
He will command, we all will stand,
 And follow, and rejoice!

4-21-2006 [ hymn ]

[to the tune of “O God Our Help In Ages Past” or other fourteener]

a modified sonnet: "Bent, Unbroken"

For this one, I reverted to an earlier stage: my first couple of "successful" attempts at sonnet writing, decent poems for a young guy, had one major problem. They were iambic tetrameter, not iambic pentameter. Tetrameter verse is much easier to begin in, especially for those of us who teethed on hymns, read Dr. Seuss, and had mothers who liked to quote Longfellow and Dickinson (though I did manage to keep up a running feud via Poe against Longfellow).

But there are reasons to go back to tetrameter once in a while: the shorter line allows the verse to "move" faster, moving away from the leisurely contrivance of a sonnet toward the more immediate, expressive style of ballad and song.

“Bent, Unbroken”

Should there be none but one of you
To see these years and years of pain,
Or should each bit of hope I gain
Be bought with what I once held true;
Should only fears I’ve battled through
Await me in the bitter rain,
Or should I be no longer sane
When all things end and start anew—
These matters, don’t.  For all I know
Pales when the true steps into view
To speak the truth I always knew:
He loves me, and He told me so,
And mind and matter bow before
What flesh and blood would most ignore.

PGE  9-13-2007

Not really good enough to submit for publication, frankly; melodrama is something I try to avoid; but there's something in it, I think, just the same.

a not-very-theological sonnet: "Tense Moment"

The sincerest believers I know will admit they have had this sense, from time to time: that strange "outside looking in" sensation about our own heart truths, the things we hold so dearly we suspect ourselves of bad faith, and believe in so strongly we suspect ourselves of emotional maladjustment. There is a challenge posed by that moment; it is a moment of real crisis, and may be a moment that perdures for a second or for years. For in that moment we confront the admixture of our "self": the Spirit-borne child of God with the "self-made man" that cannot make sense of God, because the self-asserting self seeks to be un-created. To become Christ's is a deathwish, for that self; and our accuser will pull every Freudian string he can find to turn our "selves" against our Body.

We live in this paradox.

"Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared"
(1 Jn 3:2)

Tense Moment

Some fuzzy numbness now and then pervades
My frame of mind, and there are times I know
No more than God or other people show,
As if I stood there while love draws the shades.
Our tender moment opens, music fades,
The light becomes soft-focus, just a glow,
And here I stand outside in driving snow,
Cut off by window panes like headsman’s blades.
She stands there kissing air; the window frosts
Between her words and mine, and in that frame
I trace the pattern, recognize the costs
In years and tears to make a novel name:
Reflecting all this inward, I am found
Within this paradox of truth unbound.

PGE  1-14-2008

following that . . . "Disclosure" [free verse]

Now, I don't happen to think that Joab poem was very good. (I've wanted to write a poetic or fictional work on Abner for some time, but don't feel ready to pull it off. The Joab poem was a gesture in that direction.)

However, as often happens, in the surplus of one work we find a better. At least, I think this is a much better piece of free verse.

Disclosure

If someone should speak Peace it will not be
 The silencing of voices all resolved,
  in pacification,
 Nor the pacific strain—stout Cortez or Balboa to the side,
  see the scene
 Of conflict, wide and warm, like blood, and salty—
It will not be with pax
 Or pace—non requiescat, lest we lie
 To rest, in cooling stillness, like the tomb—
Such pieces from the pavement form the stones
 We throw, the gore we touch, the road to
  all for your own good
  and we mean well—
 No,
If someone should speak peace, the word will be
 Some word I’ve left unspoken, unforeseen, foretold
  a revelation.

PGE  3-4-2008

You'll notice that the Joab poem, and much more "Disclosure," have strong iambic pentameter tendencies. That's intentional: in fact, "Disclosure" will almost (but not quite) scan as iambic verse throughout. It's a "chastened free verse," that is, free verse which acknowledges its debt to formal prosody even while it takes its modern turn away from the form.

unchained prosody

I write formal poems. Often in experimental forms, which is to say, formal "one offs"--but I write verse with rhyme, metre, and any other trick I can muster. I'm not, however, averse to free verse as one particular form (the form defined by its rejection of other forms). The challenge is that free verse in the run of folks writing poetry is indistinguishable from unwrought wordplay; it lacks evidence of craftsmanship. Perhaps mine does too; I hope not.

Try this, see how it plays for you.

Ah, Joab, stick the shiv into my ribs,
 You bastard!  How I know
  I should have seen you coming.
   Nothing worth,
  My years of service to my lord, my king,
   My cousin,
 Sovereign of my people, and his son.

Hah!  Joab, you remember, then
 Strike hard and true!  I struck
  Your brother so.
 Is this the ending of that peaceful day
  Beside the pool,
 Pretending to civility, long lost?

Yes, Joab, I was lulled by peaceful words,
Some rest your master spoke of, and I’m tired—
Exhausted from surrender, yet I know
Blood calls for blood:  stoop now and drink your fill.

Now, Joab!  Now you listen, now
 The moment I should see
 Some vision of the silence still to come:
  I see
 Nothing, only I have served
  And you have slain

PGE  3-3-2008

OK, time for some poetry blogging

Well, when I launched this blog back in 2004, aside from the need to vent on things happenning in the US while I was in Japan, its major purpose was to serve as a vehicle for my poetry.

Well, then, off we go.

I'm prompted to this by a great discussion with Jon Trainer over at personal trainer EX villis CATHEDRA, who has brushed off his quill and, following no less illustrious example than Edward Taylor (though directly inspired by D. A. Carson), has been writing sonnets as reflections on his sermon subjects since Passion week:

a holy week sonnet
dark road
deep, deep

Champ Thornton, Jon's fellow at New Hope Church and coblogger, posted several of Carson's sonnets on Passion week: catch them here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

women in art -- a morphing video

Someone has done a pretty good job of pointing up the abstraction of face shape in visual art by morphing together fitting examples from roughly 500 years of painting since the Renaissance. The interest the abstract painters near the end show in the lines, shapes, color patches, and spacings that say "a beautiful woman" to a viewer from a certain place and time in history--or perhaps, in some measure, from any place and time?--is easier to understand after seeing how these many different faces seem, so often, to share the "same" features. Still, as jon trainer notes (hat tip, and he doesn't express it thus), the ones you'd rather wink at date back a few years. . . .

for what it's worth

Over at my other, newer blog (dedicated to shorter clips, quotes, gnomic utterances, and poetry) I have a series of brief statements of what I believe modeled on the creeds I've been posting, here:

credo iii
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

I believe Jesus Christ is God being a man, and was already God when the Father sent the Son, and the Spirit fertilized an egg of Mary’s, so that the Son has an actual human body both created in the image of God (as are we all) and genetically linked to his mother; to David; to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; to Noah; and to Adam.

credo ii
Friday, February 1st, 2008

I believe Jesus Christ, the Lord of all believers (we entrust ourselves to Him, agree to cooperate with Him, and know He will transform us), is the same Creator God as the Father and Spirit; yet He is the Son to the Father, Who sends Him to be the Lord of all Creation.

credo i
Thursday, January 31st, 2008

I believe in God the Father, Almighty Creator of all things visible and invisible, near and far, close to Him and close to me.

I believe the Son and the Spirit are this same Creator God.

another helpful summary -- Chalcedon

Symbol of Chalcedon
Following, then, the holy fathers, we unite in teaching all men to confess the one and only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. This selfsame one is perfect both in deity and in humanness; this selfsame one is also actually God and actually man, with a rational soul and a body. He is of the same reality as God as far as his deity is concerned and of the same reality as we ourselves as far as his humanness is concerned; thus like us in all respects, sin only excepted. Before time began he was begotten of the Father, in respect of his deity, and now in these "last days," for us and behalf of our salvation, this selfsame one was born of Mary the virgin, who is God-bearer in respect of his humanness.

We also teach that we apprehend this one and only Christ-Son, Lord, only-begotten - in two natures; and we do this without confusing the two natures, without transmuting one nature into the other, without dividing them into two separate categories, without contrasting them according to area or function. The distinctiveness of each nature is not nullified by the union. Instead, the "properties" of each nature are conserved and both natures concur in one "person" and in one reality. They are not divided or cut into two persons, but are together the one and only and only-begotten Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus have the prophets of old testified; thus the Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us; thus the Creed of the Fathers* has handed down to us.

To tell the truth, this one is very nit-pick-able because the language of "natures" is so imbricated in a particular metaphysics of substance, and the incoherence of "before time began" remains inadequately considered to this day. None of which detracts, finally, from the important respects in which this symbol helps to limit the possibilities for understanding Jesus. If you care to try, sorting out which of these clauses is precisely backed by Scripture, and which are less authoritative because more original to this creed, would be a valuable exercise.

apropos of nothing.....

Me, Simpsonized, I guess. :-)

Big White Hat » Autism

Big White Hat » Autism:

Quite a lot of good commentary from this blogger, whose son is autistic. After one unsettling episode, he writes;

I have never been more frightened. My boy went to extreme measures to leave the safety of our home for an enticement he spotted out of the car window. I was helpless. That is one sick feeling.

I have also learned a lot from the well intentioned and imperfect heroes that helped us that day. First, that police officer bled for us. Second, it is human nature to assume parents are negligent. Third, the thank you moments of our lives are awkward. Most folks don’t know how to act. I think the lone ranger and Tonto had the right idea by avoiding the whole situation. I owe those folks a debt of gratitude. But they will never celebrate the fact that my family was reunited.

Lord, I know you must feel sick about the 6 billion children that left your presence to chase after enticements. Bless all of Your rescue workers. Comfort us when we bleed. May we keep our joy fresh and celebrate with You when Your children are reconciled.

Amen.

HEMA - online winkelen

HEMA - online winkelen

This is . . . just brilliant (HT: evangelical outpost).

those crazy Dutch. :-) you gotta love 'em

...some Auden for y'all.

Whose world does this sound like?

The Unknown Citizen
To JS/07/M/378
This Marble Monument is Erected by the State

He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn't a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Installment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A gramophone, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace; when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation,
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.
(W. H. Auden -- March 1939)

Power Line: Long time gone

Power Line: Long time gone

Scott at Power Line comes through with another musical gem for us:

ah, makes me long for karaoke. Cheers, Rod.

YouTube - Thelonious Monk - Lulu's Back in Town Part 1

YouTube - Thelonious Monk - Lulu's Back in Town Part 1

Just a bit more of the good stuff for ya:


continued here -- 'cuz life is like that.

a great way to summarize

The words are old, and in some cases I think we might be able to say it more clearly in our own language than in the translation of this--but these abiding and widespread agreements ("ecumenical creeds") about what "Christian" means are well worth keeping in mind.

Apostle's Creed	Nicene Creed
1. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth,	1. We believe in one God the Father, the Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, and of all that is, seen and unseen.
2. And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord,	2. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being [substance] with the Father. Through him all things were made.
3. Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,	3. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made truly human.
4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried; He descended into hell.	4. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried.
5. The third day he rose again from the dead;	5. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures;
6. He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.	6. he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
7. From there he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.	7. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
8. I believe in the Holy Spirit,	8. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father [and the Son]. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets.
9. I believe in the holy catholic church, the communion of saints,	9. We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.
10. The forgiveness of sins,	10. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
11. The resurrection of the body,	11. We look for the resurrection of the dead,
12. And the life everlasting. Amen.	12. and the life of the world to come. Amen.

YouTube - Jerry White's Select Songs / Ragtime Stride Piano Jazz

This is cool for a couple reasons. It's some pretty sweet stride piano, and it has a whole monologue in Thai, too. Not that I know Thai, but I have friends who might. And I like the music, and the oddness of the setting makes it grand. Apparently this was made for Thai soldiers needing orientation to US culture while training here.

YouTube - Vic Fontaine/Benjamin Sisko - The Best Is Yet To Come

YouTube - Vic Fontaine/Benjamin Sisko - The Best Is Yet To Come

Well, I was looking for Sinatra singing it, but hey. . . . look what I found!


(Trek fans: I'm sure you'll agree this was a very good moment in an anticlimactic wrap-up.)

Oh, did you want someone else? Well, here's Tony Bennett singing it.

YouTube - Kansas - Carry On Wayward Son" 1976 Video

YouTube - Kansas - Carry On Wayward Son" 1976 Video

OK, well, this breaks the piano-jazz and tech-geek music & video run, but . . . OK, really.

First of all, it is a great song. Also, get a load of the hair....or don't.



Enjoy.

Power Line: Who says Freddy's dead?

Power Line: Who says Freddy's dead?

I do profit by the perspective over at Power Line, but I much more enjoy the musical and cultural bits. The politics and the music meet in this video, but go read the post for a bit of provocation (in one of the better senses):

Cool.

Fwd: re WSJ article on "church discipline"

(This post is a letter sent to the author of the article "Banned from Church" that appeared recently in the Wall Street Journal.)


Dear Ms. Alter,

While I am sure you have received mountains of mail about your article "Banned from Church," I do hope this one has a chance to meet your eyes. I am not here to shout you down, nor to rail at any party to any of the disputes you mention. I am a lifelong church member from a very conservative background, a Religion & Literature scholar, and a PK (preacher's kid), and as such I want to take a moment to clarify some matters of concern which your article made muddier, rather than clearer.

First, I wish I could say that what you wrote is wrongheaded and completely non-representative. It is not. In a moment I'll explain how I believe you have misunderstood church discipline, but that would be meaningless if I did not first deal with the larger, sadder, more important issue: churches at large, and the churches you mention particularly, do not seem to have much more understanding of church discipline than you do. I do not ask where you stand religiously: your stance in the article is that of an outsider to evangelicalism, reporting to a secular society the goings-on among an "other" culture of peculiar believers. Churches which claim to stand for the Gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ, ought to be very obvious refutations of the negative descriptions in your article. Their members ought to be able to explain what "church discipline" really is, and to tell you why the examples you show in the article are examples of undisciplined churches, of "churches gone wild" in the worst way. I saw no example in your article in which either the leaders among the church, or the rest of the members of the church, were actually practicing "church discipline."

"Church discipline" is often misused by many, including church members and (in this article) you, as including all sorts of meanings. Four, in particular, occur in your article and need to be separated. There is the "excommunication" of an impenitent person, whose impenitence is another word for unbelief (infidelity, apostasy). There is "the ban," a medieval pronouncement whereby anyone (prominently a king or two) could be rendered a non-party to all earthly legal matters by a pronouncement from [the pope] an ecclesiastical authority. There is "shunning," a practice commonly called such only among certain closed communities (Amish or Mennonite "plain folk" are best known, though others exist), in which someone excluded from the community is treated as a non-person entirely--no hearing, speech, eye contact, etc. Last, there is "separation" of a sort practiced by American Fundamentalists, in which a public person or (more commonly) group is marked "off limits" to anyone who cares about the pronouncements of the pastor, leader, spokesman, or school president who makes such a decree. Those who associate in an endorsing or ecclesiastically significant (say, having such a one as a guest speaker) manner with someone the group has "separated from" is liable to find the group "separating from" them, as well.

Only one of these is any part of "church discipline," and that is excommunication. The others are either tools used to erect and protect worldly power structures within what ought to be the Body of Christ, abuses of teachings which have been separated from their purposes, or both. (caveat: many people who are accustomed to the terminology of one group or another within Christendom do practice better than their rhetoric might suggest; many who speak of "separation" intend something much more like "church discipline" than "separation" in the sense above.)

The Scriptures are clear, and there are churches which try to practice "church discipline" correctly--though, sadly, very unevenly and imperfectly, still. "Church discipline" begins with the idea that the church is a group of "disciples"--committed followers, as baptism signifies--of Christ Himself. Pastors are recognized teachers, not chiefs in a power structure. The pastors teach and guide the members as they (including the pastor) learn together what Christ is teaching us. "Discipleship" is the process of learning and transmitting the data, social context, wisdom, and spiritual insight of our lives together as disciples of Christ. The church is the body of such disciples. "Church discipline" is the maintenance of that reality.

With regard to inevitable errors and conflict resolution, then, "church discipline" as taught by Christ and His Apostles proceeds like this: any member who knows there is a problem (whether they wronged someone, were wronged, or just know of a struggle or failure) is responsible, for the good of the other and the church, to go to that person and try to resolve the problem, and ensure there is reconciliation of the parties, and learning of the right way to deal with such problems in the future. The term to emphasize is "seeking reconciliation." Disputes must not fester.

If someone refuses to acknowledge that effort, the concerned believer should meet with the other party in the company of two or three other believers; this is to check the perceptions of both parties and to ensure the greatest chance of reconciliation. Again, no one should "win" this sort of thing; "victory" is restoring harmonious fellowship based on mutual commitment to following Christ--church disciple-ing, or discipline.

Finally, someone who continues to refuse to deal with the problem--someone who is "impenitent" (not willing to change for the good of self, other, and church)--becomes a problem for the whole church. The entire body must deal with the conflict--bearing in mind that, of course, it is still possible there are misunderstandings, or wrongs, on both sides. Under the teaching and with the counsel (and warnings!) of their leaders, the church as a whole will have to decide whether this is, indeed, a case of impenitent sin (an impossibility for a believer); or whether this is a misunderstanding that should be set aside (the concerned party may have overreacted, and may need to ask for more guidance, for example).

In that final, extreme case--one most churches are utterly unwilling to consider--the church has a heavy heart and a heavier responsibility: to tell the one who says "I am a follower of Christ" but refuses to participate in or listen to the disciple-ing (discipline) efforts of the body of Christ--the group of followers of Christ--that his claim is untenable. That it is like saying, "I am a student but will not study" or "I am a soldier but will not march" or "I am a committed Democrat who always votes Green and donates Libertarian." The church does not agree that "impenitent Christian" is a real category, and accordingly will not agree to treat this person as a Christian. They are instructed not to participate in communion (the sharing of the body/Body of Christ), and should be treated (for purposes of business partnership, marriage, joint ventures, teaching, etc.) as an unbeliever.

But what do Christians seek to do to unbelievers? To JAIL them for attending services? Or to BEG them to attend services? To drive them away? Or to INVITE them in?

Sadly, as your article shows, many churches in this nation have no understanding of this matter, and no clarity on their final mission. The question of a suit in the nation's courts ought never arise among believers; church discipline ought to involve entirely internal conflict resolution. That lawsuits entered into several of your stories--that police were called--indicates, to this believer, that these churches (and I wish I could say they are nonrepresentative, but they are not so, not nearly enough so) had already had a complete breakdown in church discipline.

Your article reflects your lack of knowledge of church discipline, and seems to evince a concern that churches are beginning to practice "church discipline." Sadly, this is not the case. Churches are, instead, beginning to experience their utter dissolution because they have long since failed to practice church discipline at all.

Peace,
Peter G. Epps


[Updated with links to the ESV Bible for background on these statements]
[Bumped to appear at the top on Monday]

YouTube - He Looked Beyond My Fault - Gospel

YouTube - He Looked Beyond My Fault - Gospel

[Bumped up: I think we all need this]


You'll easily guess how I got there . . . this YouTube user has covered Round Midnight, as well.

Jazz Piano. . . . oh, yeah.

And take a look at the lyrics to "He Looked Beyond My Fault (and saw my need)" by Dottie Rambo, to what is of course "Londonderry Air" (no "London Derriere" jokes, please), and at least equally famously "Danny Boy." Incidentally, though of course I grew up with the Gospel song, I found myself frequently asked to sing "Danny Boy" at Japanese social functions, which invariably turn to karaoke 'ere the end. The Gospel still rings truer, though. There's good stuff, here.