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Michael R Burch Mar 2020
I Pray Tonight
by Michael R. Burch

I pray tonight
the starry light
might
surround you.

I pray
each day
that, come what may,
no dark thing confound you.

I pray ere tomorrow
an end to your sorrow.
May angels’ white chorales
sing, and astound you.

Composer Mark Buller used the lyrics of “I Pray Tonight” in his musical composition “Erasure,” a song cycle for baritone, clarinet and piano on the theme of gun violence. “I Pray Tonight” was later performed as “Elegy” at the Hurricane Harvey Relief Concert by the Apollo Chamber Players in partnership with Musiqa Houston and Jazz Forever @ the MATCH (Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston), on September 8, 2017. All proceeds went towards the Harvey Relief Funds. Keywords/Tags: Pray, prayer, angel, angels, divine, protection, safety, starry, light, mercy, grace, comfort, shield, buckler, safeguard, charm, talisman, white magic
Michael R Burch Mar 2020
A Possible Argument for Mercy
by Michael R. Burch

Did heaven ever seem so far?
Remember–we are as You were,
but all our lives, from birth to death—
Gethsemane in every breath.

Published by First Things

Keywords/Tags: Christianity, religion, God, Jesus, Christ, salvation, mercy, heaven, hell, Gethsemane, life, lives, birth, death, breath, grace, forgiveness
Carlo C Gomez Feb 2020
You're a tree of knowledge
I'm your fallen leaf
This ground between us
So cold and stark
So waterless
I cannot survive
If ever you loved me at all
Please end this misery
By finishing me off
Michael R Burch Feb 2020
Rejection
a roundel by Geoffrey Chaucer
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Your beauty from your heart has so erased
Pity, that it’s useless to complain;
For Pride now holds your mercy by a chain.

I’m guiltless, yet my sentence has been passed.
I tell you truly, needless now to feign:
   Your beauty from your heart has so erased
   Pity, that it’s useless to complain.

Alas, that Nature in your face compassed
Such beauty, that no man may hope attain
To mercy, though he perish from the pain;
   Your beauty from your heart has so erased
   Pity, that it’s useless to complain;
   For Pride now holds your mercy by a chain.

***

Original text:

So hath your beaute fro your herte chaced
Pitee, that me ne availeth not to pleyne;
For Daunger halt your mercy in his cheyne.

Giltles my deth thus han ye me purchaced;
I sey yow soth, me nedeth not to feyne;
    So hath your beaute fro your herle chaced
    Pilee, that me ne availeth not to pleyne

Allas! that nature hath in yow compassed
So gret beaute, that no man may atteyne
To mercy, though he sterve for the peyne.
    So hath your beaute fro your herte chaced
    Pitee, that me ne availeth not to pleyne;
    For daunger halt your mercy in his cheyne.
Ryan Seth Cole Nov 2019
I am such a wretched man living in a foriegn land. No good work comes from my hand's.

The words that flow from my mouth are proceed from a wicked heart.

I know you by your name.
Your love covers me casting a shadow of shame. Your innocence was subsituted by my guilt. It was my sin and yet you took the blame. You know me by my name.

You seen my heart. My flesh was woven with weeds and thorns. You called out to me, I heard you and my sin departs. You justified a man because you love me and it breaks my heart.

Your presence is upon me, I am convicted. I ask for forgivness and then depart. I went from your light back into the dark. I clung to you. You held me, you know my heart.

I am so sinful. My every action is against you. My every plan is a plot. I wage war against you and your mercy sustains me as I continue in the dark.

I could have died so many times but you save me. I could of fallen but you hold onto me. You always have my best interest when to me you are just a passing thought.  

I fear your lashings but I reverence you because of who you are. You are the creator of all things! I am the child you sought. Your perfect son was given so that my sin would be baught.

I am forgiven and you are an after thought. I am unworthy, undeserving and ungrateful, this is what breaks my heart. You are merciful, giving and you never depart. You walk with me every day while I plot against you and spit in your face.

You saved my life and I curse your name. You changed everything and yet in me I walk the same. Your grace is upon me. Father I want to change. Will you forgive me and show me the way.

-RSC
Jesus saves, I sin.
Asominate Feb 2020
A sinner's prayer
I come and leave justified
Mercy: my mistakes are covered
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