Apr 14, 2020 | Bible Story, Gus Stevens, Irregular Rhyme, Quatrains, Seasons, Spring
I believe in the resurrection. With its birdsong and flowery filigree, springtime is a useful simile, but the meaning moves in only one direction. It is a life that was, and then was not: true flesh with dirt beneath the fingernails, an eye color that history has...
Jul 28, 2018 | Bible Story, Gus Stevens, Multi-Syllabic Rhyme, Pentameter, Prophets
It’s told that Socrates chose the hemlock over this greater terror: banishment. But tortured Jonah, standing on the dock the hour he spied the boat to Tarshish went in secret to the furthest corner of the earth to hide his hate beneath a Spanish tent. He refused...
Dec 24, 2017 | Bible Story, Corona, Gus Stevens, Letters to the Churches, Sonnet, Victorian Sonnet
EPHESUS These are the words of the first and the last who holds the seven stars in his right hand. The cloudless mornings now are overcast and the first light of your golden lampstand though not yet a shade, now darkens, dwindles. You know the heft of love and quiet...
Dec 20, 2017 | Advent, Bible Story, Corona, Gus Stevens, Letters to the Churches, Sonnet, Victorian Sonnet
These are the words of the first and the last who holds the seven stars in his right hand. The cloudless mornings now are overcast and the first light of your golden lampstand though not yet a shade, now darkens, dwindles. You know the heft of love and quiet work;...
Dec 20, 2017 | Advent, Bible Story, Corona, Gus Stevens, Letters to the Churches, Sonnet, Victorian Sonnet
The High King has come and he knows your deeds; he knows that you are neither hot nor cold. All this he knows, and still he intercedes as priest before the throne of grace. Behold the man upon the cross. Both God and Lamb. He binds all peoples in one heart and mind;...
Dec 20, 2017 | Advent, Bible Story, Corona, Gus Stevens, Letters to the Churches, Sonnet, Victorian Sonnet
Those blood-bought names he never will blot out. Long have been the years of our pilgrimage and the herds have withered in the drought. Still the shepherd leads and calls for courage. He leads them to an uncrossable sea and standing upon that desolate shore he...
