G.K. Chesterton - The House of Christmas

 

The House of Christmas

 

 

There fared a mother driven forth
Out of an inn to roam;
In the place where she was homeless
All men are at home.
The crazy stable close at hand,
With shaking timber and shifting sand,
Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand
Than the square stones of Rome.

For men are homesick in their homes,
And strangers under the sun,
And they lay on their heads in a foreign land
Whenever the day is done.
Here we have battle and blazing eyes,
And chance and honour and high surprise,
But our homes are under miraculous skies
Where the yule tale was begun.

A Child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam;
Only where He was homeless
Are you and I at home;
We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost - how long ago!
In a place no chart nor ship can show
Under the sky's dome.

This world is wild as an old wives' tale,
And strange the plain things are,
The earth is enough and the air is enough
For our wonder and our war;
But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings
And our peace is put in impossible things
Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings
Round an incredible star.

To an open house in the evening
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home.


Gilbert Keith Chesterton





Wikipedia Bio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gk_chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG (29 May 1874 – 14 June 1936) was an English writer.^[1] He wrote on philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction. Chesterton is often referred to as the "prince of paradox",^[2] The Time magazine, in a review of a biography of Chesterton, observed of his writing style: "Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories—first carefully turning them inside out."^[3]

 

Chesterton is well known for his reasoned apologetics and even some of those who disagree with him have recognized the universal appeal of such works as Orthodoxy and The Everlasting Man.^[3][2] Chesterton, as a political thinker, cast aspersions on both progressivism and conservatism, saying, "The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected."^[4] Chesterton routinely referred to himself as an "orthodox" Christian, and came to identify such a position more and more with Catholicism, eventually converting to Roman Catholicism from High Church Anglicanism. George Bernard Shaw, Chesterton's "friendly enemy" according to Time, said of him, "He was a man of colossal genius".^[3] Biographers have identified him as a successor to such Victorian authors as Matthew Arnold, Thomas Carlyle, John Henry Cardinal Newman, and John Ruskin.^[5]

 

 

More Poems by GKC - http://www.poemhunter.com/gilbert-keith-chesterton/poems/

 

Poem Hunter Biography - http://www.poemhunter.com/gilbert-keith-chesterton/biography/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

William Baer - Writer of Faith

Twenty Contemporary Writers of Faith: William Baer
http://www.civitate.org/2012/07/twenty-contemporary-writers-of-faith-william-baer/

by Micah Mattix
July 17, 2012

I was going to begin this series with Amit Majmudar, who writes from outside the Christian tradition but whose work, to borrow Flannery O’Connor’s phrase, is “Christ-haunted.” Instead I’ve decided to begin with the Catholic poet William Baer. I may get back to Majmudar (and other writers whose faith commitments are a bit nebulous) in a twenty-first post.

 

Born in 1948, William Baer studied at Rutgers and New York University before completing a Ph.D. at the University of South Carolina under the poet James Dickey. He was the inaugural editor of The Formalist (1990-2004) and is the author of five volumes of poems, a number of works of film criticism, various collections of interviews with other poets and several plays. He lives in Evansville with his wife and two children and is currently the Melvin M. Peterson Endowed Chair at the University of Evansville.

 

His first book of poems, The Unfortunates (1997), won the T.S Eliot Prize in Poetry. In this volume, Baer eschews the fragmented lyric, which was coming into its own at the time (and is still too popular, as Marjorie Perloff rightly complains). Instead he offers tragic portraits in straightforward narrative of the broken lives of “everyday” individuals, from a local prosecutor who no longer believes in justice and a young man tempted by cults to a woman dying in a hospital and an unhappy librarian.

 

In “Breaking and Entering,” for example, a common criminal reflects on the idea of home in the middle of a burglary:

When he was done, he sat in their living room:
as always, he’d made certain they’d be away,
and checked for dogs, alarms, and nosy neighbors,
then glass-cut through a window in the back—
ready with the knife he’d never used
(but would)—and quickly packed her gold and stones,
their small antiques, and the “knock-out” Tiffany lamp—
which these dull bastards certainly didn’t deserve.

But he liked their quiet house, just as he’d liked
his parents’ best when they were sound asleep,
no nagging, fighting, or banging him about.
Some “sneaks” enjoy the breaking in—“like sex”
they say—while others crave the risks, or just the goods,
but he liked sitting in their living rooms,
until, at last, he’d slit their couches open, and leave.
Too bad. He liked it here; it felt like home.

Baer offers no hope of redemption in these poems as if to force us to come to terms with the deeply-rooted problem of human brokenness–something we Americans, with our self-help books and day-time talk shows, want solved before the next chapter or commercial. At the same time, small paradoxes, like the criminal breaking into a home in order to “steal” a sense of home–a sense, ironically enough, that is marked by the absence (or silence) of others–show us that to make peace with our brokenness is to be a divided or irrational self.

 

In other volumes, Baer addresses redemption head on. Psalter (2011), for example, is a wonderful book of devotional poems on selected books and characters from the Old and New Testaments. In “Genesis,” the opening poem of the volume, Baer retells God’s miraculous creation of “a corporeal universe”:

with stars, and with a whirling spot of blue,
with countless creatures of the day and the night,
in which there was, beneath the skies above,
a creature, in God’s image, yet not alone,
a male, a female, with understanding and love,
with a deathless soul, with free will of its own.

Man-made creation, on the other hand, which attempts to replace rather than imitate God’s original creative act and divine order ends in chaos. “What becomes of a scheming innovator,” Baer writes,

who falsely sacrifices before our feasts,
who countermands the will of his creator
and claims that all are holy, and all are priests?

The answer: “The earth will open, and those who still rebel / will tumble into the flaming pits of hell.”

 

Yet, there are those who do not “still rebel.” In “Adam,” for example, after the father recognizes the full force of his rebellion against God, he does not despair, but rather turns to God in faith:

He’d seen this thing before, of course, but never like this.
After Eden, he’d found a swan lying motionless and silent,
forever rotting, irretrievable, and gone.
But now, it’s his boy, the brother of Cain, the shepherd son,
the kind and faithful friend of He-Who-Is,
lying quiet and slain: finished, futureless, at the end of his end.
Once, Adam had named the names, and named his own two sons,
and named this curse, which mullifies and terminates, as: “death.”
But he who’d known the awesome power of God looked to the skies,
knowing, without a doubt, though nothing was said,
his God both could and would undo the dead.

This poem’s simple diction can hide a nuanced contrast. Adam had indeed “named the names” and “his own two sons.” In this, he imitated God. Naming is a creative act–one that in human usage identifies being (whereas with God it creates being). Adam’s silence in the creation story at the Tree of Good and Evil, however, and his subsequent transgressive act, resulted in death. The word, which he is forced to coin because of his one original act, fills his mouth and cuts his wind–it “mullifies and terminates.” In this silence (“nothing was said”), however, Adam turns to God, resubmitting himself and his language to Him. The poem, in turn, fittingly ends in metaphor: God, Adam knows, will “undo the dead.”

 

One criticism of Baer’s work is that it lacks formal depth or metaphorical richness. While Baer’s focus narrative can sometimes divert his attention from formal possibilities, like Frost, Baer’s seeming simplicity can be deceptive. His work is both accessible and complex, immediately pleasurable and a great tool for private and public devotion.

 

 

 

Resources:

 

Books of Poetry by William Baer:

 

The Unfortunates (1997)

 

Borges and Other Sonnets (2003)

 

“Bocage” and Other Sonnets (2008)

 

Psalter (2011)

 

 

 

 

 

 

William Baer - Snowflake

 

 

Snowflake

 

Timing’s everything. The vapor rises

 

high in the sky, tossing to and fro,

 

then freezes, suddenly, and crystalizes

 

into a perfect flake of miraculous snow.

 

For countless miles, drifting east above

 

the world, whirling about in a swirling free-

 

for-all, appearing aimless, just like love,

 

but sensing, seeking out, its destiny.

 

Falling to where the two young skaters stand,

 

hand in hand, then flips and dips and whips

 

itself about to ever-so-gently land,

 

a miracle, across her unkissed lips:

 

as he blocks the wind raging from the south,

 

leaning forward to kiss her lovely mouth.

 

 

- William Baer

 

 

 

 

 

 

BIOGRAPHY

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/william-baer

 

William Baer was born in Geneva, New York in 1948. As a writer, editor, translator and professor, Baer has authored and edited fifteen books, among them The Unfortunates, which won the T.S. Eliot Prize in 1997, and Bocage and Other Sonnets, recipient of the X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize. Baer is the founding editor of The Formalist, a literary journal dedicated to Formalist poetry, and serves as a contributing editor of Measure. He is a former poetry editor and film critic of Crisis Magazine. Baer teaches creative writing, cinema and world cultures at the University of Evansville, in Evansville, Indiana, where he lives with his wife and children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And The World Cries For Ones Now Lost

Heal the World Lyrics - Michael Jackson

Heal the World by Michael Jackson

Send "Heal The World" Ringtone to your Cell

"Heal The World"

There's A Place In

Your Heart

And I Know That It Is Love

And This Place Could

Be Much

Brighter Than Tomorrow

And If You Really Try

You'll Find There's No Need

To Cry

In This Place You'll Feel

There's No Hurt Or Sorrow

There Are Ways

To Get There

If You Care Enough

For The Living

Make A Little Space

Make A Better Place...

Heal The World

Make It A Better Place

For You And For Me

And The Entire Human Race

There Are People Dying

If You Care Enough

For The Living

Make A Better Place

For You And For Me

If You Want To Know Why

There's A Love That

Cannot Lie

Love Is Strong

It Only Cares For

Joyful Giving

If We Try

We Shall See

In This Bliss

We Cannot Feel

Fear Or Dread

We Stop Existing And

Start Living

Then It Feels That Always

Love's Enough For

Us Growing

So Make A Better World

Make A Better World...

Heal The World

Make It A Better Place

For You And For Me

And The Entire Human Race

There Are People Dying

If You Care Enough

For The Living

Make A Better Place

For You And For Me

And The Dream We Were

Conceived In

Will Reveal A Joyful Face

And The World We

Once Believed In

Will Shine Again In Grace

Then Why Do We Keep

Strangling Life

Wound This Earth

Crucify Its Soul

Though It's Plain To See

This World Is Heavenly

Be God's Glow

We Could Fly So High

Let Our Spirits Never Die

In My Heart

I Feel You Are All

My Brothers

Create A World With

No Fear

Together We'll Cry

Happy Tears

See The Nations Turn

Their Swords

Into Plowshares

We Could Really Get There

If You Cared Enough

For The Living

Make A Little Space

To Make A Better Place...

Heal The World

Make It A Better Place

For You And For Me

And The Entire Human Race

There Are People Dying

If You Care Enough

For The Living

Make A Better Place

For You And For Me

Heal The World

Make It A Better Place

For You And For Me

And The Entire Human Race

There Are People Dying

If You Care Enough

For The Living

Make A Better Place

For You And For Me

Heal The World

Make It A Better Place

For You And For Me

And The Entire Human Race

There Are People Dying

If You Care Enough

For The Living

Make A Better Place

For You And For Me

There Are People Dying

If You Care Enough

For The Living

Make A Better Place

For You And For Me

There Are People Dying

If You Care Enough

For The Living

Make A Better Place

For You And For Me

You And For Me

You And For Me

You And For Me

You And For Me

You And For Me

You And For Me

You And For Me

You And For Me

You And For Me

You And For Me

You And For Me

Heal the world we live in, save it for our children

Heal the world we live in, save it for our children

Heal the world we live in, save it for our children

Heal the world we live in, save it for our children 

Excerpts From "An Unexpected Journey" by J.R.R. Tolkien

 

"As children's fantasy literature goes this is a fun read full of

creaturely songs, dark tales and whimsical riddles. It is truly

a tale for the ages...." - R

 

 

Amazon Listings

 

 

"It seems every 20 years or so I must re-read JRR Tolkien. In preparation for Peter Jackson's newest Tolkien film coming out in December 2012 I begin my third reading with great pleasure and delight. Let me share my journey with you in a revisioning of "All Things Hobbity" with care, of course, not to spoil the adventure!" - R

 

*

 

"Let's start by choosing a book with pictures and maps.

Without maps you will get lost of course..." - R

 

 

A Bookstore Display

  

 

A Sighting of Oxford's Resident Hobbit

  



The Author J.R.R. Tolkien



  "Chapter 1 - An Unexpected Party. 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit....' and thus began J.R.R. Tolkien's very first line on a blank page when grading papers at Oxford and the legedarium to come. Of Arda and Middle-Earth filled with tales, poems, fictional histories, invented languages, and literary essays about a fantasy world of faeries and elves, craven dwarves (using the ancient spelling for an ancient race), goblins, and greedy dragons, well before the dawn of man.

 

"Where Ea sang worlds into existence and the Ainur entered Arda following the creation events in the Ainulindalë. Where time was measured in Valian Years and by hero's accounts now lost in the deep delves of doom and enchantment.

 

"Yes, dear ol' Bilbo began it all. And it isss (as Gollum would say) by his Hobbit tale we are delivered the rich fantasy worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien. Writer of children's poems by night and Oxford professor by day. Telling his children of phenomenal bravery amid the lost lores beyond the Shire. Who carefully listened to their studied father questioning him in like studious fashion whether blue-shrouded dwarfs wore silver or gold bracelets and diamond rings with hood or cloak. Hail!" - R

 

 

 

 

 

"Now if you wish to know how the game of golf was begun, or what drawves love most in this world, or even how Bilbo became a bugler (tho' he didn't know it himself at the time of his appointment - or how good he would be at it) then chapter 1 is the best place to begin!" - J

 

*

 

The sign on the door read, "Bugler wants a good job, plenty of excitement,

and reasonable reward." - J

 

*

 

“There’s a lot more in him than you guess. And a great deal more than

he has any idea of himself,” spoke Gandalf to his inquisitors. - J

 

 

 

 

"And do not think that this little book of adventures is something magical

like the whimsical Harry Potter. No, its holds much better English prose

than you will find in your typical Hogwart's classic." - R

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 "From Book I, The Hobbit, spawned the lore of Middle-Earth's impossibly complex and rich traditions beginning with this line... 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.'

 

"And thus began JRR Tolkien's very first line on a blank page when grading papers at Oxford and of the legedarium to come. Of Arda and Middle-Earth filled with tales, poems, fictional histories, invented languages, and literary essays about a fantasy world of faeries and elves, craven dwarves and goblins, and greedy dragons, before the dawn of man." - R

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Won't you come in says the spider to the fly...."

 

*

 

"What has roots as nobody sees, Is taller than trees, Up,up it goes, And yet never grows?"

 

*

 

"There was then a hissing and cursing almost at Bilbo's heels at first, then it stopped.

All at once there came a blood-curdling shriek, filled with hatred and despair....

"Thief, thief, thief! Baggins! We hates it, we hates it, we hates it for ever!" - J

 

 

 

 

"Not far ahead were dreary hills, rising higher and higher, dark with foreboding trees. The kind that whispered when all was quiet and you daren't go in and everything seemed gloomy. On some hills were old castles with an evil look that held the nights comfortless and chill. Where the echoes were uncanny and the silence disliked being broken except by the wail of the wind and crack of stone." - J

 

*

 

"The land about them grew bleak and barren, though once green and fair. There was little grass, and before long there was neither bush nor tree, and only broken and blackened stumps to speak of ancient forests long vanished. They had left Esgaroth and were come to the lands of Desolation, and they were come at the waning of the year." - J

 

 

Lake City of Esgaroth

 

 

 

 

 

"... Bilbo was trembling with fear as he crept noiselessly down, down, down into the gloom of darkness taking more than a hobbit's care to make no sound in the lingering echoes. Already he was a very different hobbit from the one that had run out without a pocket-handkerchief from Bag-End long ago. He had not had a pocket-handkerchief for ages....

 

"...The heat from the steam and foul smell increased as he crept steadily along. He loosened his elf-dagger in its sheath, tightened his belt, and pressed on against his welling fears. There were dark things that dwelt down here, that had dwelt there for many ages, and he dare not make any careless sound...." - J

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The Land that was... of Middle-Earth in the time of orcs and men." - R

 

 

 

 

"... Bilbo had come far and through many adventures to see it, and now he did not like the look of it in the least. All was dead around and about and no living thing had lived there for many years. But there was no turning back from this adventure as he pressed on with the dwarves in their doomed hopes for revenge and gilded honor." - J (in an excerpt from the Lonely Mountain)

 

 

 

 

 

"Never allow a Wizard to talk you into anything like adventures.

Only the worst sort of things can happen from them. Things like

troubles and cares and woes. But wizards are clever sorts of beings.

Cleverer than you." - R

 

 

 

 

 

"Dwarves can be quite unpleasant company if you allow them in.

Always hungry, never satisfied, grumpy as they are gloomy." - R

 

 

 

The steeps of Lonely Mountain

Thus ends the story of Bilbo Baggins Esquire, of Bag-End, Underhill, Hobbiton of the Shire, which he later entitled "There and Back Again." An adventure that had begun quite unexpectedly and returned him from the world again as quite another person. Few of the Shire believed his tales. And many doubted that he was who he claimed to be. In fact, many shook their heads and said, "Poor Old Baggins!" To which Bilbo cared not one whit and took to writing poetry and having the honour of hosting those dwarves, elves, wizards and other such folk as ever passed his way. He had become the stuff of legends and songs remembered by those who truly knew the courage and resourcefulness of a hobbit. The End." - J/R

 

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

S P O I L E R

 

 

*

 

 

Film Production Tidbits for Parts I, II, III

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit_(film_series)

November 2012

 

"The Hobbit will be a trilogy centered around innocence and growing up respective to the elements within the story itself (though many suppose it refers to Britain's perception of itself related to Germany's arising in WW1, this would be untrue. And let's not pretend that Britain was ever that innocent in her relations with other nations whom suffered underneath her English rule.)" - R

 

*

 

"The Film Series will be as follows: Part (I) An Unexpected Journey-2012, (II) The Desolation of Smaug-2013, (III) There and Back Again-2014. As of November 2012, Part I is done; Part II is in post-production; and, Part III will soon begin." -R

 

*

 

"I'm much in agreement that the 3rd part of the Trilogy MUST be related to Bilbo and not to the other events such as the battle of the five armies (per the book nor its appendices). The same goes with the first part whose title excludes "Riddles in the Dark" as straying from its center. It must be Bilbo always." - R

 

*

 

"MGM, New-Line, and Warner Bros. do not have rights to The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales and sadly, cannot reference any of the lore within those literary pieces. Which leaves at least a century's worth of filming for later on I would imagine. Those that can't wait may read Tolkien's books now. They are everywhere present and plentyful. For books are ever the better compliment to any film with few exceptions." - R

 

 

 

 

 

 

24 Advent Poems for Christmas

 

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived,

reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. - Anon


*Many thanks to Journey with Jesus for collecting these poems -

http://www.journeywithjesus.net/PoemsAndPrayers/Advent_Poetry.shtml

Daily Readings for the Month of December

from Dec 1 to Christmas Day and Beyond

 

 

Dec 1 - Catherine Alder, Advent Hands

 

Dec 2 - Daniel Berrigan, Advent Credo

 

Dec 3 - John Betjeman, Christmas

 

Dec 4 - Sr. M. Charlita, I.H.M., Advent Antiphons

 

Dec 5 - G.K. Chesterton, The House of Christmas

 

Dec 6 - Sr. M. Chrysostom, The Stable

 

Dec7 - Pamela Cranston, ADVENT (On a Theme by Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Dec 8 - Pamela Cranston, God's Annunciation

Dec 9 - Pamela Cranston, Poem for Christ the King

Dec 10 - John Donne, Annunciation

Dec 11 - John Donne, Nativity

Dec 12 - St. Ephraim of Syria (Ephrem of Edessa), From God Christ's Deity Came Forth

Dec 13 - U.A. Fanthorpe, BC:AD

Dec 14 - Christopher Harvey, The Nativity

Dec 15 - Denise Levertov, On the Mystery of the Incarnation

Dec 16 - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Christmas Bells

Dec 17 - Edwin Muir, The Annunciation

Dec 18 - Prudentius, Of the Father's Love Begotten

Dec 19 - David A. Redding, Adult Advent Announcement

Dec 20 - Brad Reynolds, Gaudete  (*gaudete - a medieval hymn or carol of "rejoicing")

Dec 21 - Rainer Maria Rilke, Annunciation to Mary

Dec 22 - Luci Shaw, Virgin

Dec 23 - Alfred Lord Tennyson, A New Year's Poem

Dec 24 - Brian Wren, Good is the Flesh

Dec 25 - Matthew 1.18-2.7 (Jesus' Birth), Luke 2 (Jesus' Birth)

Dec 26 - Mark 1 (Jesus' Ministry Begins)

Dec 27 - John 1 (Christ's Incarnation & Calling)

Dec 28 - John 2-3 (Jesus' First Miracle and Message)

Dec 29 - Romans 1 (Paul's Letter to the churches of Asia Minor)

Dec 30 - Readings in Psalms (5 Psalms in 30 Days covers all the Psalms)

Dec 31 - Readings in Proverbs (a chapter a day for a month)

Jan 1 - Chose a Bible Reading Plan (there are several; print-out the chronological as a guide).
            Understanding the OT will help when reading the NT. And understanding the NT will
            help when reading the OT. Same God, same faith, but now re-read through Jesus.

Jan 2 - Begin attending several churches to discover their traditions, customs and understanding
            of Jesus in relation to the living Christian faith. Begin reading Relevancy22 as a starting
            point for understanding the theological teachings of Christianity, its doctrines & dogmas.

Jan 3 - Begin Walk Thru the Bible's 5 Year Study (yes, it's old timey but it will bring the Bible
            alive through the twangy Texas accent of a beloved pastor now passed away in a common-
            sense approach to people and life's many twists and turns. The Bible is not meant to be
            hard to understand. This little audio study will tell of God's daily presence and love).

Jan 4 - Become acquainted with the Basic Theological Readings of the Bible. Five methods are
            summarily examined comprehensively - each method shows how to read the Bible from
            a different viewpoint that will help give an interpretive structure to Bible reading.

Jan 5 - St. John's Video Timelines Project - An Expansive Review of the Bible, church history
           and church doctrine at the reader's pace while continuing to read through Relevancy22.
           In a way, Relevancy22 is the contemporary twin to the St. John's Timelines Project.
           Where one examines the past, the other examines the directions of the church today.

 

 

 

For more on Advent and its meaning go to -

 

Celebrating Advent, It's Timeless Meaning and Discovery

http://relevancy22.blogspot.com/2012/12/celebrating-advent-its-timeless-meaning.html