January
Time to bed in
After excessive holiday
Stay in the warm
With leftover Christmas treats
Repeating TV rocks the cradle
Make the annual plea
To your better senses
To somehow wake up
To the resplendid chaos of the past
The shadow-long was cast
In silver-studded diamonds of love
Black witches spell comes out white
In Persil wash
But she ain’t kidding no-one
For long
Masquerade please fall
Shed off this old skin
Let new years air breathe her in
To gentlest touch of skin
Renewal rebirth of hope if nothing more
Resolutions to keep or to break
The mystery of tomorrow.
© Petra Creffield January 10th 2007
Petra Creffield
Meditation on Daniel 5:1-31
O see, an unseen hand now writes
Upon life's trembling wall,
Carving letters made of light
To read, for one and all.
Counted, counted, weighed, divided --
The words He writes in warning.
O will you watch them fade away,
Forget ere comes the morning?
The writing is upon the wall,
Counted, weighed, divided --
O will the hand bring you to tears,
When you find out what's decided?
The book of life is in His hands,
Your actions tallied, all
O will you turn and walk away
Or listen to the call?
Counted counted are the cries
That rise to Heaven's door,
Mothers weeping in the night,
Their hearts a-breaking sore,
Hungry children, broken souls,
Forgotten, left to die,
God hears the pain that we let slide,
and marks down every sigh.
Weighed each answer to His call,
weighed each turn away.
Weighed each time we answer yes,
Weighed each quiet nay,
The answers written in His book,
the count made very sure --
The motives noted for each act,
greed or lust, or pure.
The day will come with trembling knees,
when we stand there at his call,
He will look within his book
to judge us one and all.
Each sheep and goat will take their place,
Each stand to left and right,
O will you name be in the place
of darkness or of light?
The writing comes as no surprise,
The Word gives out its warning.
No hidden scripts to puzzle out,
The truth as clear as morning.
Two thousand years God's made it clear,
Two thousand years and more.
O let His words work in your heart,
O open up the door!
(note - this can actually be sung to the tune of Good King Wenceslas, which I find amusing, but was playing at the back of my mind while I was writing this.)
