A Saturday's Quartet

By Peter Venable

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            Dawn
Opened the Word, plumbed and plunged
into Daniel’s dark revelations. Eons later, 
Tell us, when will these things be? 
And what is the sign when 
all these things will be fulfilled?*, 
the deeper I fathom “these things,” 
the clearer they become. 

            Morning
At the Apple Festival throngs of souls
all shapes, sizes, stages of life: dyed hair, moms 
and strollers, pig races, sleeve tats, food trucks, 
blacksmith forging—and all I did was spot specks
in others’ eyes beneath the shades of beams 
nailed to my eyebrows. 
Dawn’s inspired depths 
darkened by shallow eyes.

            Afternoon 
At the Salem Bach Festival – Choral Sing,
Salem Bach Choir enchanted us, –
pitch perfect – and we sang hymns, climaxed
by “Wake, Awake, for Night is Flying”:
“the Bridegroom comes, awake;
Your lamps with gladness take . . .”
My lamp still cold while trekking through the lot--
how I snuffed His light only a few hours ago.

            Evening
Bedside lamp on. David’s confessional
Create in me a clean heart, and renew
A right spirit within me;* James’s reproach
Does a fountain flow with both clear
and brackish water from the same outlet?*
both as I douse the light, stare at the
dim ceiling. The sacrifices of God are
a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart*--
Such as am I. Better broken than rigid.
I am a poor candle, but the light is Thine. 

*Mark 13:4, Psalm 51:11, James 3:11

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The writer has written sacred and secular verse for many decades. He’s appeared in Ancient Paths, Prairie Messenger, The Lyric, The Anglican Theological Review, The Christian Century, The Merton Seasonal and Windhover. His Jesus Through A Poet’s Lens is available at Amazon. He is at petervenable.com and on Facebook.