Ireland, Here I Come

This will be my last dispatch for a while. We head to Ireland on Friday for a 3 week family vacation. I should have a few things to say when I get back. Have a great month of June and happy posting until July.

I Can't Wait to Get to Heaven

I am listening to Keith Green today. He is my favorite Christian musician. I especially like his songs about heaven. I envy Keith because he is there! I also like Anglo-Saxon poetry and I thought of this poem by Caedman looking forward to Christ's return. Enjoy.

899	Then suddenly on Sion mountain from the south-east the incandescence of the sun will come shining from the Creator, more luminous than men in their minds can imagine it, gleaming bright when the Son of God reveals himself hither through the canopies of the heavens. Christ's wondrous figure, the form of the noble King, will come from the east from out of the skies, sweet to the minds of his own folk, bitter to those steeped in sin, strangely diverse and different towards the blessed and the wretched.
910	To the good he will be gracious in appearance, beautiful and delightsome to that holy throng, attractive in his joy, affectionate and loving; agreeable and sweet it will be for his cherished people to look upon that shining form, to look with pleasure upon the mild coming of the Ruler, the mighty King, for those who had earlier pleased him well in his heart with words and with works.

The Fields of Athenry

This is a beautiful and sad song of Ireland. Follow the link to hear the song:

-1-
By a lonely prison wall
I heard a young girl calling
Micheal they are taking you away
For you stole Trevelyn's corn
So the young might see the morn.
Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay.

Chorus
Low lie the Fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly.
Our love was on the wing we had dreams and songs to sing
It's so lonely 'round the Fields of Athenry.

-2-
By a lonely prison wall
I heard a young man calling
Nothing matter Mary when your free,
Against the Famine and the Crown
I rebelled they ran me down
Now you must raise our child with dignity.

Chorus

-3-
By a lonely harbor wall
She watched the last star falling
As that prison ship sailed out against the sky
Sure she'll wait and hope and pray
For her love in Botany Bay
It's so lonely 'round the Fields of Athenry.

Chorus

Inniskeen Road: July Evening

I am getting ready to go to Ireland for a three week vacation and have been reading some Irish poetry and history. Here is a poem by Patrick Kavanagh:

The bicycles go by in twos and threes -
There's a dance in Billy Brennan's barn to-night,
And there's the half-talk code of mysteries
And the wink-and-elbow language of delight.
Half-past eight and there is not a spot
Upon a mile of road, no shadow thrown
That might turn out a man or woman, not
A footfall tapping secrecies of stone.
I have what every poet hates in spite
Of all the solemn talk of contemplation.
Oh, Alexander Selkirk knew the plight
Of being king and government and nation.
A road, a mile of kingdom, I am king
Of banks and stones and every blooming thing.