From Where I Stand

From where I stand
I encompass the land
From here I see
The hinterland of eternity
I hear the music of the spheres
The silent rhythm of timeless years
Pulsating out and back again.

I climb the stairs of thought
And all that I have sought
Takes shape and form and light
As pierced are the shadows of the night.

x

 

Requiem

I heard them crying out of the dark earth,
"Who shall sing our song -- who shall speak for us ?
Who shall cry the cry of grief and tears
For us who did not return ?

"We rise in supplication from this desolation.
Cry in the wind and weep for us."
"And what shall I say," I asked
"Say we live, and love, and long."

x

 

Battle Dirge

I hear the beat of the drums
Bur-d d drum - bur-d d d drum - bur d d drum
The trumpet sounds - the marching feet
Move off and down the street.

"Where are you going," they are asked.
"Who knows, who knows," they say as they passed.
"We're off to battle, we're off to battle."
Bur-d d drum - bur-d d drum - bur-d d drum.

"Who shall weep for you, who shall weep for you,
When you are passed and the night is long."
"They that love us shall weep for us."
Bur-d d drum - bur-d d drum - bur-d d drum.

"And when you are done, shall you return?
Shall you return when you are done
and the night is passed and the battles won?"
Bur-d d drum - bur-d d drum - bur-d d drum
"Who is to say when the battles done,
Who is to say we shall return?"
Bur-d d drum - bur-d d drum - bur-d d drum.
"The night is long and the battles long
And the heart is weak in the battles heat
And the night of death is but a breath
From the battles light in the night."
Bur-d d drum - bur-d d drum - bur-d d drum.

There they go in the whitened snow
With tramping feet and rhythm step
To the night of death and the battle long
Bur-d d drum - bur-d d drum - bur-d d drum

0 consider
Those marching feet that went down the street
To the beat of the drum and the trumpet sound
And the night of death and the battle ground
Bur-d d drum - bur-d d drum - bur-d d drum.
x

 

In the Still of Evening

In the still of evening
Amidst steady drip of dew and wisps of fog.
I hear the sublime
Star spangled like a spray -
A flashing light - soaring upward
I trace those stars - those lights
I follow through - where no time is -
I hear the whisper of eternity.

x

 

Night Song

Let me sing you a song,
A night song - about the wind and the stars and the sea.

Low it comes and sweet,
Gently like the soft lapping of the wave
Down the edges of the night it comes to me
Now far like a dream
Now near with mystic theme.

Blow my song, cool like the night wind.
Spray the shore like the sparkling waves
Fingered by the light of the stars
Let the night bring it to me.

What is thy song, 0 night ?
What lyrics do I hear ?
Each song a prayer,
Each note a yearning, soul.

0 wind, 0 sea, 0 stars - On and beyond and above
There lies love - There is God.

 

Bennett Freeman Hall