Two Poems - Neither one by me

This is Thomas Hardy

In Time of Breaking of Nations

Only a man harrowing clods
In a slow silent walk 

With an old horse that stumbles and nods 

Half asleep as they stalk.

Only thin smoke without flame 

From the heaps of couch-grass; 

Yet this will go onward the same

Though Dynasties pass.

Yonder a maid and her wight

Come whispering by: 

War's annals will cloud into night 

Ere their story die.

Source: https://quotepark.com/quotes/1944915-thomas-hardy-wars-annals-will-cloud-into-night-ere-their-stor/

Then here is Stevie Smith, picking up the baton from Thomas Hardy. This one makes me cry, and it makes me laugh.

I Remember

It was my bridal night I remember,
An old man of seventy-three
I lay with my young bride in my arms,
A girl with t.b.
It was wartime, and overhead
The Germans were making a particularly heavy raid on Hampstead.
What rendered the confusion worse, perversely
Our bombers had chosen that moment to set off for Germany.
Harry, do they ever collide?
I do not think it has ever happened,
Oh my bride, my bride.

https://davidsuttonpoetry.com/2014/11/21/week-108-i-remember-by-stevie-smith/

With the rioting that is going on in the USA and now spreading to London, it almost feels like civil war.  Lawlessness increases, and the earth becomes filled with violence.   How much we need the Kingdom of God.  And already that Kingdom is teaching millions from "every tribe and nation and tongue" to live in peace as the brothers and sisters we truly are.

I talked to Lilian - exPlanetExpat - on the phone on Tuesday.  Like us, she is not rushing out to taste this new freedom.  None of us are young, and it is best for everybody that we remain cautious.

Though today Captain Butterfly has headed back out to the field - the metal detecting field, specifically a Hampshire one.  As it looks like being a long do, he has taken two boxes of sandwiches and cake with him.   I guess they are allowing a limited amount of detecting now as it is carried out by a very few people - only six in this case - in a very large field.  

So hopefully it is safe enough.   Worry worry.  Its not so hot today but overcast and humid.  We badly need some rain, but I hope there are no thunderstorms over whichever field the Captain and his gallant detectorist comrades are in.

The next stage of a Bible study would be about Jehovah's invitation to draw closer to him and come to realise how he is so interested in each one of us, and so understanding about our weaknesses and our imperfections.

Psalm 65:2 says:  "O Hearer of prayer, to you people of all sorts will come."

He is there waiting for us to speak to him, to ask for help.  And Jehovah has taught us how to pray to him, how to contact him.  Its in the Bible.  But how many of us know how to pray?  I didn't, for many years, despite all my churchgoing and my convent education.

And it is so important.  Psalm 145:18 says that "Jehovah is near to all those calling on him, To all who call on him in truth."    And to find out how true those words are we need to know the truth about our Creator and how to pray to him.

I hope to include the beautiful, comforting words of Psalm 103:12-14 in my next blog.