Heroism

Proud Boromir appealed to Denethor
like Isaac's first-born, skilled at Fish and Game.
The kind of guy men follow into war,
but ever thirsting for the mob's acclaim.
Covertly, Faramir sustains their world
without his brother's appetite for praise.
Not incidentally, he'll get the girl
who rescued Gondor in its darkest days.
Core Christian virtues, Milton would endorse
must undergird the core of MIddleEarth.
Humility, not showy feats of force
characterize the hero of great worth.
Big men might find Redemption as they died
but Sam's the hero wholly purged of Pride.

What dwells within

ben-Uziel broiled poultry passing by;
for such a peaceful guy, some found that odd.
High-wattage conduit into the sky
three times each day bore orisons to God.
Hillel'd expounded worlds between the words
to find a covert mitzvah to be kind.
His davening posed no such threat to birds;
the God he linked dwelt neatly in his mind.
Our omnipresent God is everywhere
and Hillel's pleased to place the local call.
What others broadcast to the atmosphere
his private chat with God is "still" and "small".
Once we've internalized the Deity
Their miracles are wrought through you, and me.

JRR's groundwork

The pride of Denethor was Sauron's tool
to broach the citadel so stoutly built.
The fall of Faramir was doubly cruel
increasing as it must, a father's guilt.
John Milton resonates through Tolkien's work
his highest praise is saved for humble Sam.
While no one--quite--calls Boromir a jerk
Galadriel--for one--accounts him damned.
His outcome's dicey 'til his final breath
defending Hobbits under Amon Hen.
Unworthy life, redeemed in noble death
A Catholic author's jaundiced view of Men.
Rejecting allegory out of hand,
he can't transcend the world he understands.

millenialist

Mike Johnson sees a fire he wants to stoke
by slashing revenues that make wheels turn.
As Speaker of the House, this guy's a joke;
he only took the job to watch it burn.
The greenest Speaker since McKinley's day,
knows nothing of how funds are raised, or spent.
So sure the dice must fall big donors' way,
his bogus "offset" wouldn't save a cent.
Christ's kingdom's all he really cares about;
he'd just sojourning in the tawdry life.
His bags are packed, he's jonesing to get out
and "devil take the hindmost"(or his wife).
As sure as Lot that none of it's his fault
as Rapture looms, he'll do without the salt.

vayera

God tested Avraham; those files are sealed;
We're free to speculate on the result.
For cities on the Plain, he'd wheel and deal
but for his own, won't protest, nor consult.
For Muslims, the prime virtue's to submit,
but Jews object where some consent, and nod.
This episode's the hardest one to fit
for one who'd been so intimate with God.
Poor Yitzhak bore the scars throughout his life
of trauma we can never understand.
A surrogate must chastely woo his wife
unbound, but still strait-bounded by the Land.
The sagest can feel lost without a guide
through texts with which we can't be satisfied

Testing, 1 2 3 testing...

"That woman" Sarah snarled "has got to go!"
and Avraham's bewildered at the switch.
As he'd been told to do, he'd done just so.
No man alive could satisfy this bitch.
God rolled the eyes he hasn't strictly got
commiserating with his favorite Jew.
"It's pointless talking while her wrath burns hot
for now, just as she says, you'd better do".
One final test before his trial's done
if one so elevated might rise higher.
Please lay your only one beloved son
to elevate on an impromptu pyre.
Each year, we struggle somehow sense to make
of this pericope, that's still opaque.

Merkavah

Ezekiel saw wheels revolve in wheels
supporting Him who dwells above the skies.
Uncertain if this vision were quite real,
but most explicit: all around were eyes.
Beside the ditch that watered Babylon
where grieving landless transients were kept,
recalling rain-fed fields of days long gone,
the prophet rose, where others sat and wept.
God's cedar footstool Solomon had built
reduced to ashes from the roof to vault
reverberates still in our people's guilt
'Cause history itself is all our fault.
Attentive readers see, if they're astute
Our Lord is ever with us, in galut.

Dead Show

The lyrics raced in flames across the sky,
an alphabet no living mortals know.
Invisible to those who weren't high,
if there were any such, at such that show.
Fierce Revelation of the Fungal Truth,
as Dionysus manifests on stage,
accessible to California's youth,
amidst the strait-laced Ronald Reagan Age.
Old neural circuits latent in our minds,
still close when prompted with the proper key.
Cubensis makes the alkaloid that binds,
but never shared its rationale with me.
Ventura's long since swallowed by LA,
but we remember when gods came to play.

Tzedekh, Tzedekh...

The coalition Netanyahu bought
with promises each bloc could live its dreams,
just winks at terrorists, when they get caught,
if they're perceived to play for the same team.
The many Netanyahu has betrayed
have sworn they'll never work with him again.
His underlings routinely go unpaid;
the dogs that run with him are scarcely men.
"I put no faith in Man" the psalmist wrote.
All government--he'd guess--is on the take.
The cynic's guide to how Haredi vote:
they'll back the crook who'll bend laws for their sake.
A politics of Fear, betraying Hope
has hooked a generation on this dope.

Shemini

Investiture's complete; it's been a week,
These Cohanim are ready to debut.
They've learned to dress, and schecht, and not to speak.
(as grievous as that last feels for a Jew) 
White-clad in linen, purged of sin and fear,
a turban knotted on each oil-slicked head
uniquely set apart, prepped to draw near,
a fancy-dress rehearsal to play dead.
As pure as Aaron's bull, and just as game
as Isaac, when his father'd raised that knife,
these two found consummation in the Flame,
exultant as a groom to take a wife.
Saint Paul proposed salvation's won through Faith;
Jews partner God, and have done, since the Eighth.

Blonds in bondage

Maghrebi pirates held Gibraltar's strait
exacting tribute on those narrowed seas.
Norse traders, when obliged to innovate
linked stream to stream, portaging down through Kyiv.
To Mikkelburgh, a wonder to behold!
Before the world had heard of "Romanovs"
Where smelly wares were parlayed to bright gold
some days it's tusks and pelts, some days it's Slavs.
Until they're baptized, everyone's fair game;
"sold down the river" wasn't metaphor.
'Til Voldemar signed up--at least in name--
to live near rivers was to suffer war.
'Til Africa was featured in the Trade
the working class was signed up, raid by raid.

backwards

In Kabul, Taliban rehung their flag
Assuring females they've nothing to fear
as long as the're accoutred in a bag
and follow men twelve paces to the rear.
For their part, women fly to emigrate
or send their daughters overseas to school.
convinced this government will violate
such promises once it can make the rules.
Two trillion dollars! Not a lot to show
Afghanistan's much like the day we came.
One generation's had the chance to grow
but none--who have resources--will remain.
Another empire packs away its tents
and leaves the place without a government.

It's about time

The moon of Nisan ripens in the sky,
A dusty mirror showing us our sun.
A parting glance at one more year gone by,
with opportunities now gone and done.
And then to dwindle, ceding back the Night,
To stars that bleach the shadows she'd have cast,
contributing their dimmed, red-shifted light
originating eons in the past.
A festival of freedom, pent indoors

by yet a latest plague in the old mold.
While we retell the ten that went before
as if we'd lived through what transpired of old.
An opportunity shared to reflect
on what has gone before, and what comes next.

People of Praise

Judge Barrett's Handmaid trusts she will comply
with covenants on whom she will obey.
Above the Law, more powers rule on High
and human statutes won't get in her way.
What counts as 'law', our Constitution's clear;
a Bible's found for oaths, but never read.
To bring her handmaid's cultish values here
would turn our jurisprudence on its head.
Prioritizing Jesus over Locke,
She'd toss Enlightenment and all its boons.
It's more than Roe v. Wade that's on the block--

her theory of state is loony-toons.

Another seat--past what McConnell stole--
Trump flirts with civil war to keep control.

incredible!

Trump Junior boasts his daddy fights for God.
Against exactly whom, he doesn't say.
If He's omniscient, some must think it odd
that He'd rely on Trumps in any way.
When facts don't fit, they just extemporize
and swear a lot of oaths they'll never keep.
Their enterprise is graft, and fraud, and lies;
their shoes look pricey, but their honor's cheap.
If He's omniscient, problems multiply
beyond what mortal minds can understand.
You'd need a miracle to justify
preferring such a coward to a man.
To rally "Christians" to corruption's cause
they'd violate a universe of laws.

who's responsible?

At thirty-seven, Cheney should have died;

 that heart-attack was dealt to lay him low.
Blasphemous cardiologists defied
God's will, as if it's they declare what's so.
Since then, the consequences have been dire,
each sign from Heaven answered with more war.
unChristian nation marching towards the Fire,
Has long forgotten what we're founded for.
If masks express unfaith in the Divine,
Dick Cheney should slake Krakatoa's thirst!
America's not going to be fine,
If we go on electing the plumb worst.
The "logic" of the faux religious Fringe
Must make the thinking few rebel and cringe.

tov meod (Sh'lach)

"Exceeding good" the spies described the Land,
evoking Genesis, and that sixth day.
But getting sustenance by one's own hand
instead of manna filled some with dismay.
Adulthood beckons, always with its cost;
our wanderings were catered, stage by stage.
To cross the Jordan, something must be lost
it won't be painless as we come of age.
The Zohar names the manna "bread of shame",
provided without effort on our part.
Once in the Land, we've just ourselves to blame.
The conquest waits for folk of stouter hearts.
God's anger flares, that we'd express such doubt,
but adolescents need to check things out.

shemini

Nadab and Abihu died in a flash
consumed like offerings of meat and bread.
We're left to guess why God would be so rash
but all that's made explicit's that they're dead.
While Moshe put his shoes on, went to work
perceiving his epiphany was done
these twain rushed to explore their priestly perks
perhaps their zeal moved them to jump the gun?
The Book of Job emphatically refutes
a simple tally-sheet of Bad and Good.
'Though Eliphaz emphatically imputes
Job earned his grief, he speaks more than he should.
To sin like Eliphaz, temptation's strong!
But scripture say explicitly, he's wrong

Fourth Turning

The blare of Trump/Pence heralds End of Days
although it's been corrupted in most texts.
The Second Horsemen slays us with a plague;
The Wise among us shudder at what's next.
Apocalyptic fires devastate Oz,
as Bangladesh subsides beneath the waves.
Still Trumpty Dumpty doubts the human cause
and soon, there won't be bodies left to save.
Pat Robertson swears God is in control
and sends disease to guide us on His way,
chastising bodies to refine the soul,
and when that fails, he'll blame it on the Gays.
Steve Bannon's all alone to find it "good"
we didn't prep for this one, 'though we could.

Spring

First full moon after vernal equinox
 a spear-take is declared by Theoden.
No longer penned by Grima in his box
He means to lead the van before his men.
Deliverance from fear is worth the chance
that one might die in battle, or at Sea
old age, nor squalid flu, nor happenstance
will claim Eorl's proud heir while he can see.
The orcs of Mordor part like standing waves
as Rohan thunders gleaming 'cross the field
And Snowmane dooms whom well-knit Dernhelm saves
A king whose false senescence has been healed.
Strange Pesach in the fields of Pellenor
an Age of Peace can only sprout from war.