"Autobiographies of great nations are written in three manuscripts – a book of deeds, a book of words, and a book of art. Of the three, I would choose the latter as truest testimony." - Sir Kenneth Smith, Great Civilisations

"I must write each day without fail, not so much for the success of the work, as in order not to get out of my routine." - Leo Tolstoy

I have never believed that one should wait until one is inspired because I think the pleasures of not writing are so great that if you ever start indulging them you will never write again. - John Updike

"The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it." - J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Poetry is the shadow cast by our streetlight imaginations." - Lawrence Ferlinghetti


[Note - If any article requires updating or correction please notate this in the comment section. Thank you. - res]


Saturday, January 28, 2023

Using OpenAI CHATGPT for Poetry Development





Using OpenAI CHATGPT
for Poetry Development


My earlier post was meant for my other website... "First Chats with AI" but since it's there I'll leave it up and replicate to the other site in hopes that poetry readers might fuller understand the place(s) I'm coming from when writing poetry.

Today I only wish to share some of my discussions with the Internet as directed by OpenAI's CHATGPT tool. You may find further information in the post previous. Here, I simply wish to try it out and think how it may be used to aid research and poem development. When I do I will credit CHATGPT and how it was used if and when quoted.

Otherwise I think this can be a lot of fun and full of helpfulness. Of course, with any good writing tool can come plagiarism and the like. I do not intend to commit such literary faux pas* but treat AI as I would any other source of data and information. (*an embarrassing or tactless act or remark in a social situation.)

Blessings,

R.E. Slater
January 28, 2023



A World of Change and Flow
by OpenAI CHATGPT
January 28, 2023


In a world of constant change and flow,
Where all is in a state of becoming,
We find ourselves in a dance with the divine,
As we move towards a greater understanding.
The process theology of Whitehead and Cobb,
Teaches us that God is present in all,
Guiding the evolution of the universe,
And working towards a greater good.
We are all part of the cosmic dance,
Each a unique expression of the divine,
Growing and changing in our own way,
As we strive towards a greater purpose.
The journey is not always easy,
For we must face the trials of life,
But with the guidance of the divine,
We will find the strength to overcome.
So let us embrace the process,
And trust in the loving hand of God,
For in the end, we will find our place,
In the eternal dance of the divine.




My queries to CHATGPT:


Query #1

Select good process theology poems to read. - RE Slater


CHATGPT's Response

Some process theology poems to consider reading include:
  • "A Process God" by Marjorie Suchocki
  • "Process Theology" by John B. Cobb Jr.
  • "A Process View of Creation" by David Ray Griffin
  • "Process Theology: A Basic Introduction" by John B. Cobb Jr.
  • "The Divine Adventure" by Marjorie Suchocki
  • "A Process View of the Cross" by David Ray Griffin
  • "Process Theology: An Introductory Exposition" by John B. Cobb Jr.
  • "The Living God: A Personal Guide to the Philosophy of Process Theology" by Marjorie Suchocki

Please be aware that these poems may not be traditional poems but more philosophical or theological texts.


Query #2

"Please provide links for all eight suggestions." - RE Slater

CHATGPT's Response

I apologize, as a text-based model, I am not able to provide links to online resources. However, all of the books and poems mentioned can be found on online bookstores and libraries like Amazon, Goodreads and Library of Congress.

If you want to find them in a library near you, you can use the title and the author's name to search for them in the catalog of the library.

Alternatively, you can use search engines like Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGo to search for the title of the poem or book along with the author's name and see if there are any online versions available.


Query #3

"Provide sample poems from the books suggested" - RE Slater

CHATGPT's Response

I apologize for the confusion. As previously mentioned, the books and poems I suggested are more philosophical or theological texts rather than traditional poetry. Some of the books have poetry included but it may not be the main focus of the texts.

Here is an excerpt from "A Process God" by Marjorie Suchocki:

"A God who is not fixed and final,
But ever in the making,
Who feels and suffers with creation,
And suffers not for breaking,
But for the pain of being,
And the pain of becoming,
A God who is not distant,
But close and ever near,
A God who is not silent,
But speaks and listens here."

and an excerpt from "A Process View of Creation" by David Ray Griffin:

"The world is not a finished product,
But always in the making,
With each event a new beginning,
And each becoming, a shaping."

Please note that these are just a small sample of what's in the book and it may not represent the whole content. If you're interested in reading more about process theology and Whitehead's Modes of Becoming, it would be best to find a copy of the book and read it in its entirety.


My First Chats with the Internet using OpenAI's CHATGPT



We’ve trained an artificial intelligence model called ChatGPT to interact in a conversational way. The dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer followup questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests. ChatGPT is a sibling model to InstructGPT, which is trained to follow an instruction in a prompt and provide a detailed response. - Open AI



My first question to the Internest using OpenAI's CHATGPT:

#1 Explain how Whiteheadian Process Theology is relevant to the subject of Christology - R.E. Slater, January 28, 2023

"Whiteheadian Process Theology is a philosophical theology that emphasizes the ongoing, dynamic nature of reality and the ongoing, creative activity of God in the world. In terms of Christology, Whiteheadian Process Theology emphasizes the ongoing, dynamic nature of the relationship between God and humanity, and the ongoing, creative activity of God in the world through the person and work of Jesus Christ. This understanding of Christology emphasizes the ongoing, transformative power of Christ's life and teachings, rather than seeing him as a static, historical figure. Additionally, Whiteheadian Process Theology emphasizes the idea that Christ is not only the revelation of God, but also the means by which God continues to reveal and transform the world." - The Internet, seconds after asking my question


#2 Explain how process theology is different from traditional theology - R.E. Slater, January 28, 2023

Process theology is a theological perspective that emphasizes the ongoing evolution and change in the nature of God and the universe. It views God as a constantly changing and evolving being who is in a process of becoming, rather than as a fixed, unchanging entity. This is in contrast to traditional theology, which often portrays God as a fixed, unchanging being who is outside of the universe and not affected by it.
Process theology also emphasizes the importance of the universe's processes and the role of human beings and other entities in shaping the world and the divine.
It also emphasizes the idea that God is not all-knowing and all-powerful, but rather limited in his knowledge and power. - The Internet, seconds after asking my question
*Statement 3 is why review of CHATGPT's statements is required. My revised statement here is that when speaking of God in process terms we speak to God's "self-limitation" by divine fiat not of God's inabilities. However, a truer reply is that my statement is false and that God's love allows for all kinds of responses from a freewill creation. That God created by love before God did by fiat - that God's fiat is always subservient to God's love.
As a freewill Being, God imputed God's Self into creation, and by this imputation came God's freewill love. Hence, God's Self- limitations are not limitations at all but how love works. It does not control. It does not demand. It does not direct.
Further, God's Love flows as an energizing force throughout creation and as an inner divine force, "just is". "Is" doesn't require any qualifications. "Is" is God and "Is" is us.
Love is as Love does... and Love does as Love is. - res
And remember, passion is the other half of Love's coin. By passion we can do evil things: individuals, nations, churches, communities, organizations, businesses. It is how a processual cosmos behaves in its ontological "becoming" - both its good it's and bad overtures to life's symphony.
R.E. Slater, January 28, 2023

Transforming Old Wineskins...

to New Wineskins...

My First Chats with the Internet
using OpenAI's CHATGPT

by R.E. Slater
January 28, 2023


I hope to utilize Artificial Intelligence more often in the future in my research and reports. When I do I will notate my use of OpenAI's CHATGPT as opposed to my own writings. In doing so I'm hoping to find the pith of relevance between process philosophy and theology with traditional Christianity which sits upon a plethora of non-process paradigms. Paradigms which require deep extraction and expansion.

The idea of God; of God's activities and agendas; of God's intimate participation with creation and our lives; of God's redeeming, loving, atoning actions; and of our many earthy responses to this God, has shown itself to be a complicated historical and present subjective-objective existential array of good-and-bad responses by man to one another and creation itself.

Process theology is based on how our organic world and socio-eco societies work. We see processual cycles and results reflected again and again in the bible though usually unobserved by the bible's own narratives and Western church theologies.

Process is how the world works. A process-based cosmology and metaphysics of ontology attempts to capture the profoundly-formative nature of God and creation into a resulting processual philosophy and theology made the more meaningful to the world we live in, and lying about us, when understanding its rhythms... and seeing its harmonies... as we learn to "go with the flow" of God and creation.

Overall, one might say Whitehead's process thought (originally called the "process of organism") is all about symbiance (cooperative unions) and holism (personal and communal intersections with self, others and nature). Or in the Chinese/Japanese ?Korean parlances of "balance and rhythm" as reflected by their cultures. But it also is far deeper than those simplified observations... which is why the branches of cosmological metaphyics and ontological theologies, among other derivatives, has arisen through the late 20th century and into today's metamodern era.

It provides promise to religious bodies and religious people that we can act more humanely to one another. More charitably and wisely. That the faiths we carry have relevancy in this world and to those around us when leaning into the love-and-peace paradigms of wholeness and being. Of Beings who are Becoming... more than they are... more as intended by God's Self in God's creational manifestations. When doing so we, as a freewill species, and within our internal being, may find deeper resonance with life, the universe, and God's purpose in this world.


SOME CENTRAL IDEAS OF PROCESS THOUGHT
  • Process Thought is a very real reality with the deep promise to value all things as they are;
  • It's difference as an applied philosophy is to regenerate and rejuvenate all things about us... itself a mirror image of how God and the cosmos themselves work and function;
  • That each living community of communities is filled with loving potential and ability;
  • That it recognizes value in difference;
  • That it seeks to build peace into all relationships around us;
  • And to know that what we see-and-feel by a life-generating metaphysic such as a process pholosophic-theology is speaking to the very vibe which moves God to be God;
  • A vibe which tells us the becoming of God, and the cosmos, and ourselves, is a natural socio-eco-spirit evolution of life around us;
  • That a processual cosmology is a deeply connected and intertwined panrelational, panexperiential, and panpsychic process between the parts and wholes of God's cosmic universe.

In other words, process theology is simply describing the Christ-event of the bible, but when doing so leaning into all processual forms of this cosmically salvific event rather than the traditional Christian forms which emphasis other observations out-of-sync with the nature and being of God and God's cosmos.

A process-metaphysic is no will-o'-the wisp series of Westernized Platonisms, Aristotelian-Scholastic thoughts, or Classic Enlightenment/Modernal philosophies whether European/Continental or American; all of which seem to argue for various forms of stoicism, legalism, isolationalism, or conformal doctrines of a militarised church socially, economically, politically, and ecologically.

And though Whitehead was seeking to recapture the processual propositions of past philosophers from earlier ages as far back as early religions and non-Hellenised Greek thinking, what his student John Cobb saw in it was a process theology for peace, goodness, and life-generating responses to all errant processes which are devolving forms of processual life changes. 

Process theology then seeks to underline the goodness and love of a life-generating God fully involved in life-atoning-and-redeeming all becoming events towards beautify, wholeness, and solidarity back to itself. To essential "come back into tune" with creation's generative teleology.

And though traditional Christianity says its "all these things" we plainly see that it has not been "all these things" to either man nor beast, stream or wood, communities of difference and communities of others. More rather, traditional Christianity has been and continues to become unholistic to the cosmos around us; harmfully deterministic in its exploitation and oppression to all things its comes in contact with; and deeply "unbiblical" in it's propositions of who God is and isn't in it's estimation. Which means like Christian's professed Savior, the church itself must repent and re-confess what it's all about by getting it's practices, attitudes, behaviors, creeds, and dogmas back in tune with the God they attest but do not know.

CONCLUSION

Lastly, process theology reflects Jesus' atonement as it's divine event is reflected back upon itself to the very "Life-giving" nature of our Loving God indwelling all hearts and world about us. God's atoning and redeeming work at Calvary is but part-and-parcel of life's creational beauty and essence. We see in it cute little puppies, babies, hobbies, and projects of unity all around us. The processual revolution of Jesus' Love speaks to the functional revolution going on about us though we see it not nor live it as we should.

The Cross then was a deep signifier by God of what life consists of around us. Divine-Life is the continual renewal and repurposing of the Spirit-life everywhere indwelling as it wrestles with creational freewill and indetermination which confronts a freewill creational every moment of it's existence. By it's very core a freewill creation must chose life and not death. That life will always be a challenge, filled with hardships and suffering against the very things which would devolve life from it's fuller potentials. Whitehead called them profound consequential results with ongoing potentials of life-releasing generative value. The church calls them the grace and peace of Spirit-filled Living when lived in God's Love. Process calls them one-and-the-same.
That divinity sovereignty is best described as God's giving of God's very Self into the very core processes of creation's DNA. That creation - such as humanity - is plagued with choices of good and evil, sin and love. And that it feels the deep drag and pull of creation's processually generative panpsychic Cosmic Being, it's processual organism, as weighing against all within itself which is out-of-sync.
The Christ event reflects as much. We are out-of-tune with God and with ourselves even as creation is fraught with the indeterminancy of it's freewill being. And yet, the Cross of Christ reminds us that God is intimately present with us and creation in actively transforming wayward fait-accomplis back to itself and to the very meaning of restitutional redemptive processes of the God of the cosmos. (*The meaning of FAIT ACCOMPLI is a thing accomplished and presumably irreversible.)

This then is how I would interpret OpenAI's CHATGPT opening answer to my first question. It's sentences were mundane and repeatitive but got to the general point of how we might intersect the old wineskins of Christian thought to the new wineskins of processual Christology when applied to contemporary thinking today.

A very simple request to speak to how process theology might reflect the very heart of the bible's Christ event deemed by the church as the world's mid-point of salvific history. That all which led before the Cross, and all which resulted after the Cross, - in the best of senses of loving becoming - was fully reflective, instrumental, even significantly recharging, of God's Selfhood in active redemptive participation towards God's insolent, and fully becoming partnerships with creation, with ourselves, and with all those apart from ourselves.

The holograms of our universe are but a microcasm of the stated organic whole we participate within physically, spiritually, emotionally, and theistically. God not only saves all... God is fully saving all each and every moment of every day forever and forever.

Peace,

R.E. Slater
January 28, 2022


It's time for Christianity to EVOLVE!


Friday, January 20, 2023

WinterJam 2023 - Live Concert Vids


https://www.youtube.com/@Winterjamtv/videos


WinterJam 2023
Select Videos for Worship & Viewing

by R.E. Slater

Concert Date: January 19, 2023
  Upload date: January 20, 2023

*Below are select my videos from the WinterJam 2023 Concert held in GRR, MI. Those few vids which are not I've so marked as "official vids" from the artists themselves. I found all the bands quite enjoyable and were best experienced together with the teens and college kids which we were very happy to be a part of. For a fuller selection of the artist's works go to the links provided below in their pictures. Special shout outs to the band Disciple, Andy Mineo, and Jeremy Camp! Awesome! - RE Slater





We the Kingdom
Jeremy Camp


Andy Mineo
Anne Wilson

Disciple
 
Thrive Worship
Newsong

Sean Be
Renee

Pre Jam Party starts at 6:00PM.

Line-up features Jeremy Camp, We The Kingdom, Andy Mineo, Anne Wilson, Austin French, Disciple, & more. Hosted by Newsong.

We The Kingdom will join Winter Jam following their Fall 2022 tour and the release of their new namesake album We The Kingdom. The band received the awards for Contemporary Christian Artist of the Year and Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year for Holy Water at the 2021 GMA Dove Awards and is known for #1 songs like “Holy Water” and “God So Loved.”

Jeremy Camp is a chart-topping, Grammy-nominated artist with 40 number one hits. He is known for songs like “I Still Believe,” “Walk By Faith” and current hit “Keep Me In The Moment” and is the subject of the 2020 inspirational biopic I Still Believe. Jeremy joins the tour following the release of his 2021 album When You Speak and his Fall 2022 tour.

No tickets needed. $15 donation accepted at the door.





WinterJam 2023 - Thrive Worship 1

WinterJam 2023 - Austin French 1

WinterJam 2023 - Newsong 1

WinterJam 2023 - Newsong 2

WinterJam 2023 - Disciple 1

WinterJam 2023 - Disciple 2

WinterJam 2023 - Andy Mineo 1

WinterJam 2023 - Andy Mineo 2

WinterJam 2023 - Jeremy Camp 1
Opening Set - "When You Speak"

WinterJam 2023 - Jeremy Camp 2
"A New Song"

WinterJam 2023 - Jeremy Camp 3
"Show Me What Matters"

WinterJam 2023 - Jeremy Camp 4
"Greater is He"

WinterJam 2023 - Jeremy Camp 5
"Great Are You Lord"

WinterJam 2023 - Jeremy Camp 6
"Getting Started"

WinterJam 2023 - Jeremy Camp 7
"Dead Man Walking" Finale

Anne Wilson Official Video
"Hey Girl" 

WinterJam 2023 - We the Kingdom
Full Concert Vid from Tampa, Florida




Saturday, January 14, 2023

Poems About Writing





A Literary Miss
by Oliver Marble

There once was a lit'rary miss;
And all that she needed for bliss
Was some ink and a pen,
Reams of paper, and then
Thirty days to describe half a kiss.



The World's Way
by Anonymous

He wrote his soul into a book.
The world refused to turn and look.
He made his faith into a rhyme,
And still the world could spare no time.
But on the day when, dumb and dazed,
Despair-condemned, and blind and crazed,
By means most weird his life he took,
Behold, the world brought out his book!



The Letter
by Emily Dickinson

"Going to him! Happy letter! Tell him —
Tell him the page I didn't write;
Tell him I only said the syntax,
And left the verb and the pronoun out.
Tell him just how the fingers hurried,
Then how they waded, slow, slow, slow;
And then you wished you had eyes in your pages,
So you could see what moved them so.

"Tell him it wasn't a practised writer,
You guessed, from the way the sentence toiled;
You could hear the bodice tug, behind you,
As if it held but the might of a child;
You almost pitied it, you, it worked so.
Tell him — No, you may quibble there,
For it would split his heart to know it,
And then you and I were silenter.

"Tell him night finished before we finished,
And the old clock kept neighing 'day!'
And you got sleepy and begged to be ended —
What could it hinder so, to say?
Tell him just how she sealed you, cautious,
But if he ask where you are hid
Until to-morrow, — happy letter!
Gesture, coquette, and shake your head!"



Free Verses
by Sarah Kirsch

Last night I awoke knew
That I should say goodbye now
To these verses. That's how it always goes
After a few years. They have to get out
Into the world. It's not possible to keep them
Forever! here under the roof.
Poor things. They must set out for town.
A few will be allowed to return later.
But most of them are still hanging around out there.
Who knows what will become of them. Before they
Find their peace.



Introduction to Poetry
by Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.



The Art of Poetry
by Jorge Luis Borges

To gaze at a river made of time and water
and remember Time is another river.
To know we stray like a river
and our faces vanish like water.

To feel that waking is another dream
that dreams of not dreaming and that the death
we fear in our bones is the death
that every night we call a dream.

To see in every day and year a symbol
of all the days of man and his years,
and convert the outrage of the years
into a music, a sound, and a symbol.

To see in death a dream, in the sunset
a golden sadnesssuch is poetry,
humble and immortal, poetry,
returning, like dawn and the sunset.

Sometimes at evening there's a face
that sees us from the deeps of a mirror.
Art must be that sort of mirror,
disclosing to each of us his face.

They say Ulysses, wearied of wonders,
wept with love on seeing Ithaca,
humble and green. Art is that Ithaca,
a green eternity, not wonders.

Art is endless like a river flowing,
passing, yet remaining, a mirror to the same
inconstant Heraclitus, who is the same
and yet another, like the river flowing.



The Author to Her Book
by Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)

THOU ill-form'd offspring of my feeble brain,
Who after birth did'st by my side remain,
Till snatcht from thence by friends, less wise than true
Who thee abroad, expos'd to publick view,
Made thee in raggs, halting to th' press to trudge,
Where errors were not lessened (all may judg).
At thy return my blushing was not small,
My rambling brat (in print) should mother call,
I cast thee by as one unfit for light,
Thy Visage was so irksome in my sight;
Yet being mine own, at length affection would
Thy blemishes amend, of so I could:
I wash'd thy face, but more defects I saw,
And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw.
I stretcht thy joynts to make thee even feet,
Yet still thou run'st more hobling then is meet;
In better dress to trim thee was my mind,
But nought save home-spun Cloth, i'th' house I find.
In this array, 'mongst Vulgars mayst thou roam,
In Criticks hands, beware thou dost not come;
And take thy way where yet thou art not known,
If for thy Father askt, say, thou hadst none:
And for thy Mother, she alas is poor,
Which caus'd her thus to send thee out of door.



When I Met My Muse
by William Stafford

I glanced at her and took my glasses
off--they were still singing. They buzzed
like a locust on the coffee table and then
ceased. Her voice belled forth, and the
sunlight bent. I felt the ceiling arch, and
knew that nails up there took a new grip
on whatever they touched. "I am your own
way of looking at things," she said. "When
you allow me to live with you, every
glance at the world around you will be
a sort of salvation." And I took her hand.



To a Blank Sheet of Paper
by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Wan-visaged thing! thy virgin leaf
To me looks more than deadly pale,
Unknowing what may stain thee yet,—
A poem or a tale.

Who can thy unborn meaning scan?
Can Seer or Sibyl read thee now?
No,— seek to trace the fate of man
Writ on his infant brow.

Love may light on thy snowy cheek,
And shake his Eden-breathing plumes;
Then shalt thou tell how Lelia smiles,
Or Angelina blooms.

Satire may lift his bearded lance,
Forestalling Time's slow-moving scythe,
And, scattered on thy little field,
Disjointed bards may writhe.

Perchance a vision of the night,
Some grizzled spectre, gaunt and thin,
Or sheeted corpse, may stalk along,
Or skeleton may grin!

If it should be in pensive hour
Some sorrow-moving theme I try,
Ah, maiden, how thy tears will fall,
For all I doom to die!

But if in merry mood I touch
Thy leaves, then shall the sight of thee
Sow smiles as thick on rosy lips
As ripples on the sea.

The Weekly press shall gladly stoop
To bind thee up among its sheaves;
The Daily steal thy shining ore,
To gild its leaden leaves.

Thou hast no tongue, yet thou canst speak,
Till distant shores shall hear the sound;
Thou hast no life, yet thou canst breathe
Fresh life on all around.

Thou art the arena of the wise,
The noiseless battle-ground of fame;
The sky where halos may be wreathed
Around the humblest name.

Take, then, this treasure to thy trust,
To win some idle reader's smile,
Then fade and moulder in the dust,
Or swell some bonfire's pile.



Saturday, December 31, 2022

Tolkien Untangled with Poems, Songs, and More Video References


LOTR - Middle Earth Music & Ambience
(intended to be played when reading all that is set below)
3 hours


Being the last day of 2022 I wish to remember the poems and songs of JRR Tolkien speaking of love and lost, wander and thrall. Within the sad tales of Middle Earth comes bred upon the human breast a wistfulness for better days when fellowship no longer strives with ruin and evil. Where the grand majesties set deep upon the hearts of all beings cannot undo themselves by heavy lost but finds within a deeper courage and longing to aright wrongs done and all be redeemed by torn atoning struggles for peace and justice founded upon the shattered halls of love unremitting its trials and longings.
R.E. Slater
December 31, 2022

@copyright R.E. Slater Publications
all rights reserved

link to

INDEX - History of Tolkien's Middle-Earth



Rendition of Middle Earth with enlargement link


Middle Earth before and after the First Age


Elven Lands of the First Age


Elven Realms of the Third Age


The Elven Kingdom of Lothlorien


Within the Halls of Lothlorien


Rendition of Rivendale


Rendition of Rivendale


The Lays of the Grey Havens


"The LOTR is not about power and dominion
but about death and deathlessness." JRRT


"Under the fading trees the land was silent." - Elven Lady Arwen


Lady Arwen, upon leaving the side of her Thrane and husband, Aragorn, and the whiten fortresses of Gondolin - where lay his tomb in the Hallows of Minas Tirith - thence journeyed onwards across Middle Earth to Lady Galadriel's remembered forest realms of Lothlorien. Then onwards to her Elven father Elrond's hidden realms founded upon the rocky chasms of Rivendale. And therefrom her father's lands Arwen thence turned westward towards the greensward troves of the misty Grey Havens once abounding it's vast inland and coastal realms under the tendering care of Elvish hands. Yet thereto did Arwen behold the fey wastelands conscripted in deeper losts than its lores and legends. For all she surveyed leaned upon her heavy heart the fast retreats of man's fourth age whose rule and imagination languished before her renown predecessor's gifted domains once wrapped in light and life within the deep and purposeful care of their Elven lord's faded dominions. - R.E. Slater

For Tolkien, as for his magical realms of lore and wisdom, time may be slowed but never stopped. Vast realms and traditions, cherished friendships and places, may for a time be preserved and protected yet all will eventually succumb to death and soulful reprocessing into the unknown realms beyond death's fast holds where new life and purpose may be rebourne, long journeys emended and renewed, and perhaps bound to brighter promises and hopes thought lost to time and eternity at death's hands.

R.E. Slater
December 31, 2022

@copyright R.E. Slater Publications
all rights reserved




The White Towers of Minas Tirith of Gondolin


Faithful Arwen beside beloved Aragorn's side in his State of Rest


Aragon's Tomb in the Hallows before the Citadel of Minas Tirith



Enya - Arwen's Song of Aragorn




* * * * * * * * *



A Tolkien Ensemble - The Song of Beren and Lúthien


Song of Beren and Lúthien

The leaves were long, the grass was green,
The hemlock-umbels tall and fair,
And in the glade a light was seen
Of stars in shadow shimmering.
Tinúviel was dancing there
To music of a pipe unseen,
And light of stars was in her hair,
And in her raiment glimmering.

There Beren came from mountains cold,
And lost he wandered under leaves,
And where the Elven-river rolled
He walked alone and sorrowing.
He peered between the hemlock-leaves
And saw in wonder flowers of gold
Upon her mantle and her sleeves,
And her hair like shadow following.

Enchantment healed his weary feet
That over hills were doomed to roam;
And forth he hastened, strong and fleet,
And grasped at moonbeams glistening.
Through woven woods in Elvenhome
She lightly fled on dancing feet,
And left him lonely still to roam
In the silent forest listening.

He heard there oft the flying sound
Of feet as light as linden-leaves,
Or music welling underground,
In hidden hollows quavering.
Now withered lay the hemlock-sheaves,
And one by one with sighing sound
Whispering fell the beechen leaves
In the wintry woodland wavering.

He sought her ever, wandering far
Where leaves of years were thickly strewn,
By light of moon and ray of star
In frosty heavens shivering.
Her mantle glinted in the moon,
As on a hilltop high and far
She danced, and at her feet was strewn
A mist of silver quivering.

When winter passed, she came again,
And her song released the sudden spring,
Like rising lark, and falling rain,
And melting water bubbling.
He saw the elven-flowers spring
About her feet, and healed again
He longed by her to dance and sing
Upon the grass untroubling.

Again she fled, but swift he came.
Tinúviel! Tinúviel!
He called her by her elvish name,
And there she halted listening.
One moment stood she, and a spell
His voice laid on her: Beren came,
And doom fell on Tinúviel
That in his arms lay glistening.

As Beren looked into her eyes
Within the shadows of her hair,
The trembling starlight of the skies
He saw there mirrored shimmering.
Tinúviel the elven-fair,
Immortal maiden elven-wise,
About him cast her shadowy hair
And arms like silver glimmering.

Long was the way that fate them bore,
O'er stony mountains cold and grey,
Through halls of iron and darkling door,
And woods of nightshade morrowless.
The Sundering Seas between them lay,
And yet at last they met once more,
And long ago they passed away
In the forest singing sorrowless.



The Song of Eärendil

Eärendil was a mariner that tarried in Arvernien;
he built a boat of timber felled
in Nimbrethil to journey in;
her sails he wove of silver fair,
of silver were her lanterns made,
her prow was fashioned like a swan,
and light upon her banners laid.

In panoply of ancient kings,
in chainéd rings he armoured him;
his shining shield was scored with runes
to ward all wounds and harm from him;
his bow was made of dragon-horn,
his arrows shorn of ebony;
of silver was his habergeon,
his scabbard of chalcedony;
his sword of steel was valiant,
of adamant his helmet tall,
an eagle-plume upon his crest,
upon his breast an emerald.

Beneath the Moon and under star
he wandered far from northern strands,
bewildered on enchanted ways
beyond the days of mortal lands.
From gnashing of the Narrow Ice
where shadow lies on frozen hills,
from nether heats and burning waste
he turned in haste, and roving still
on starless waters far astray
at last he came to Night of Naught,
and passed, and never sight he saw
of shining shore nor light he sought.
The winds of wrath came driving him,
and blindly in the foam he fled
from west to east and errandless,
unheralded he homeward sped.

There flying Elwing came to him,
and flame was in the darkness lit;
more bright than light of diamond
the fire upon her carcanet.
The Silmaril she bound on him
and crowned him with the living light
and dauntless then with burning brow
he turned his prow; and in the night
from Otherworld beyond the Sea
there strong and free a storm arose,
a wind of power in Tarmenel;
by paths that seldom mortal goes
his boat it bore with biting breath
as might of death across the grey
and long forsaken seas distressed;
from east to west he passed away.

Through Evernight he back was borne
on black and roaring waves that ran
o'er leagues unlit and foundered shores
that drowned before the Days began,
until he heard on strands of pearl
where ends the world the music long,
where ever-foaming billows roll
the yellow gold and jewels wan.
He saw the Mountain silent rise
where twilight lies upon the knees
of Valinor, and Eldamar
beheld afar beyond the seas.
A wanderer escaped from night
to haven white he came at last,
to Elvenhome the green and fair
where keen the air, where pale as glass
beneath the Hill of Ilmarin
a-glimmer in a valley sheer
the lamplit towers of Tirion
are mirrored on the Shadowmere.

He tarried there from errantry,
and melodies they taught to him,
and sages old him marvels told,
and harps of gold they brought to him.
They clothed him then in elven-white,
and seven lights before him sent,
as through the Calacirian
to hidden land forlorn he went.
He came unto the timeless halls
where shining fall the countless years,
and endless reigns the Elder King
in Ilmarin on Mountain sheer;
and words unheard were spoken then
of folk of Men and Elven-kin,
beyond the world were visions showed
forbid to those that dwell therein.

A ship then new they built for him
of mithril and of elven-glass
with shining prow; no shaven oar
nor sail she bore on silver mast:
the Silmaril as lantern light
and banner bright with living flame
to gleam thereon by Elbereth
herself was set, who thither came
and wings immortal made for him,
and laid on him undying doom,
to sail the shoreless skies and come
behind the Sun and light of Moon.

From Evereven's lofty hills
where softly silver fountains fall
his wings him bore, a wandering light,
beyond the mighty Mountain Wall.
From World's End there he turned away,
and yearned again to find afar
his home through shadows journeying,
and burning as an island star
on high above the mists he came,
a distant flame before the Sun,
a wonder ere the waking dawn
where grey the Norland waters run.

And over Middle-earth he passed
and heard at last the weeping sore
of women and of elven-maids
in Elder Days, in years of yore.
But on him mighty doom was laid,
till Moon should fade, an orbéd star
to pass, and tarry never more
on Hither Shores where Mortals are;
for ever still a herald on
an errand that should never rest
to bear his shining lamp afar,
the Flammifer of Westernesse.




The Song of Nimrodel
(Sung by Legolas in Westron and much forgotten)


An Elven-maid there was of old,
A shining star by day:
Her mantle white was hemmed with gold,
Her shoes of silver-grey.


A star was bound upon her brows,
A light was on her hair
As sun upon the golden boughs
In Lórien the fair.

Her hair was long, her limbs were white,
And fair she was and free;
And in the wind she went as light
As leaf of linden-tree.

Beside the falls of Nimrodel,
By water clear and cool,
Her voice as falling silver fell
Into the shining pool.

Where now she wanders none can tell,
In sunlight or in shade;
For lost of yore was Nimrodel
And in the mountains strayed.

The elven-ship in haven grey
Beneath the mountain-lee
Awaited her for many a day
Beside the roaring sea.

A wind by night in Northern lands
Arose, and loud it cried,
And drove the ship from elven-strands
Across the streaming tide.

When dawn came dim the land was lost,
The mountains sinking grey
Beyond the heaving waves that tossed
Their plumes of blinding spray.

Amroth beheld the fading shore
Now low beyond the swell,
And cursed the faithless ship that bore
Him far from Nimrodel.

Of old he was an Elven-king,
A lord of tree and glen,
When golden were the boughs in spring
In fair Lothlórien.

From helm to sea they saw him leap,
As arrow from the string,
And dive into the water deep,
As mew upon the wing.

The wind was in his flowing hair,
The foam about him shone;
Afar they saw him strong and fair
Go riding like a swan.

But from the West has come no word,
And on the Hither Shore
No tidings Elven-folk have heard
Of Amroth evermore.



Galadriel's Song of Eldamar
(Sung by Galadriel to the Fellowship of the Ring)


I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew:
Of wind I sang, a wind there came and in the branches blew.
Beyond the Sun, beyond the Moon, the foam was on the Sea,
And by the strand of Ilmarin there grew a golden Tree.
Beneath the stars of Ever-eve in Eldamar it shone,
In Eldamar beside the walls of Elven Tirion.
There long the golden leaves have grown upon the branching years,
While here beyond the Sundering Seas now fall the Elven-tears.
O Lórien! The Winter comes, the bare and leafless Day;
The leaves are falling in the stream, the river flows away.
O Lórien! Too long I have dwelt upon this Hither Shore
And in a fading crown have twined the golden elanor.
But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me,
What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?




Songs of the Lord of the Rings in Western Lands


In Western Lands
(Sam's Song in Cirith Ungol)
[amended R.E. Slater]


Still round the corner there may wait,
a new road or a secret gate,
and though we pass them by today,
tomorrow we may come this way....

In Western lands beneath the sun,
the flowers may rise in spring,
the trees may bud, the waters run,
the merry finches sing.

Or there may be 'tis cloudless night,
and swaying beeches burning,
Elven-stars as jewels white,
Amid their branching helms.

Though here at journey's end I lie,
in darkness buried deep,
Beyond all towers strong and high,
Beyond all mountains steep.

Above all shadows rides the Sun,
And Stars forever dwell,
I will not say the Day is done,
Nor bid the Stars farewell.


Actual Verse
*Or there maybe 'tis cloudless night
and swaying beeches bear
the Elven-stars as jewels white
amid their branching hair.



Stephen Oliver - Bilbo's Last Song
(from the BBC Radio Adaptation of the LOTRs)


Bilbo's Last Song
(At the Grey Havens)


Day is ended, dim my eyes,
but journey long before me lies.
Farewell, friends! I hear the call.
The ship's beside the stony wall.
Foam is white and waves are grey;
beyond the sunset leads my way.
Foam is salt, the wind is free;
I hear the rising of the Sea.

Farewell, friends! The sails are set,
the wind is east, the moorings fret.
Shadows long before me lie,
beneath the ever-bending sky,
but islands lie behind the Sun
that I shall raise ere all is done;
lands there are to west of West,
where night is quiet and sleep is rest.

Guided by the Lonely Star,
beyond the utmost harbour-bar
I'll find the havens fair and free,
and beaches of the Starlit Sea.
Ship, my ship! I seek the West,
and fields and mountains ever blest.
Farewell to Middle-Earth at last.
I see the Star above your mast!



* * * * * * *


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