"I have no lover and she hasn't the prettiest eyes."

St. Paul's epistle to the Romans 9:18-24

Therefore God has mercy on whom He wills,
and whom He wills He hardens.
You will say to me then,
"Why does He still find fault?
For who has resisted His will?"

But indeed, O man, who are you
to reply against God?
Will the thing formed say to him who formed it,
"Why have you made me like this?"
Does not the potter have the power over the clay,
from the same lump to make one vessel
for honor and another for dishonor?

What if God, wanting to show His wrath
and to make His power known,
endured with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
and that He might make known
the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy,
which He had prepared beforehand for glory,
even us
whom He called not only of the Jews,
but also of the Gentiles?

"Who Says Words WIth My Mouth?" by Rumi

All day I think about it, then at night I say it.
Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing?
I have no idea.
My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that,
and I intend to end up there.

This drunkenness began in some other tavern.
When I get back around to that place,
I'll be completely sober. Meanwhile,
I'm like a bird from another continent, sitting in this aviary.
The day is coming when I fly off,
but who is it now in my ear who hears my voice?
Who says words with my mouth?

Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul?
I cannot stop asking.
If I could taste one sip of an answer,
I could break out of this prison for drunks.
I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way.
Whoever brought me here will have to take me home.

This poetry. I never know what I'm going to say.
I don't plan it.
When I'm outside the saying of it,
I get very quiet and rarely speak at all.

******

We have a huge barrel of wine, but no cups.
That's fine with us. Every morning
we glow and in the evening we glow again.

They say there's no future for us. They're right.
Which is fine with us.

Too Much Dope

A cell is
the size of
a cell
is the size of
the universe.

"Tear It Down," by Jack Gilbert

We find out the heart only by dismantling what
the heart knows. By redefining the morning,
we find a morning that comes just after darkness.
We can break through marriage into marriage.
By insisting on love we spoil it, get beyond
affection and wade mouth-deep into love.
We must unlearn the constellations to see the stars.
But going back toward childhood will not help.
The village is not better than Pittsburgh.
Only Pittsburgh is more than Pittsburgh.
Rome is better than Rome in the same way the sound
of raccoon tongues licking the inside walls
of the garbage tub is more than the stir
of them in the muck of the garbage. Love is not
enough. We die and are put into the earth forever.
We should insist while there is still time. We must
eat through the wildness of her sweet body already
in our bed to reach the body within that body.

1 Corinthians 13

Though I speak with the tongues of men
and of angels, but have not love,
I have become sounding brass
or a clanging cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy,
and understand all mysteries and knowledge,
and though I have all faith,
so that I could remove mountains,
but have not love, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor,
and though I give my body to be burned,
but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Love suffers long and is kind;
love does not envy;
love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
does not behave rudely,
does not seeks its own,
is not provoked,
thinks no evil;
does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth;
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.
But whether there are prophecies, they will fail;
whether there are tongues, they will cease;
whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part.
But when that which is perfect has come,
soon that which is in part will be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child,
I understood as a child, I thought as a child;
but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

For now we see in a mirror, dimly,
but soon face to face.
Now I know in part, but soon I shall know
just as I also am known.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.

Alive again.