Friday, February 4, 2011

Poetry for Hymns

My good friend, Dr. Jim Haines, is in the process of putting together some ideas he's had into some hymns for our church, the Unitarian Church of Harrisburg.  Why he asked me to collaborate I have no idea, but he has.  I've written down something based on some ideas I had for an upcoming "member reflection" which will show up here eventually -- both the written something and the actual reflection itself.  Meanwhile, Jim has also been inspired by the words of William Ellery Channing, and I kicked around an awkward phrasing -- Channing was brilliant, but not a poet -- into something that I want to publish here as a short poem.

Seeing as how I am sitting here waiting in a freezing house for a furnace technician to call me, so we can figure out why my BRAND NEW Lennox furnace keeps quitting ("unable to calibrate pressure switch") I will keep this entry brief, and end with my poem.  Thanks, Jim, for helping nourish my spirit even though for today at least, my physical self is freezing.  Here goes --

CIRCLES ©2011 by James L. Haines and Tom Hayes

I cannot myself suffer
Without radiating circles of evil
And I cannot myself improve
Without radiating circles of goodness
Around me
As a stone dropping into a pond.



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