Tag Archives: G.F. Handel

The Royal Fireworks

With lovely face and fiery tail
Swift unaffrighting comets hail
The joyful coming of the Queen.
Look, shattered rubies, globes of green,
Meteor-streaks, the varied sheen
Of bright cadenzas, dazzling falls,
Waves of light breaking, coronals,
Hail-storms, sunwheels, opening flowers,
Trumpets of joy that speak gold showers,
And instantaneous tall towers—
Twice given; for in air they reign,
And water renders them again:
There flashing watersnakes appear,
Anenomes burn soft and clear;
There luminous medusa-domes
Trail tentacles of light; quick combs
Of coral radiance flare and die.
Galactic fire in either sky,
Of shoals and stars! And constellations
Of phosphorescent contemplations
Within that third and more inclusive
Sky of mind, where thought’s elusive
Spangles drift, or rise elate,
And sudden pleasures coruscate.
The heart is born to celebrate:
May heaven and earth keep wonted state
With thronging splendours, festivals,
Till a concluding darkness falls.

 

James Phillip McAuley 1917-1976

 

 

Poetic – but Look Out for the Cobra

       Etiopia Yemen
The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: 
the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.
Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.
For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth;
the poor also, and him that hath no helper.
He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy.
He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence:
and precious shall their blood be in his sight.
And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba:
prayer also shall be made for him continually; and daily shall he be praised.
Psalm 72 [KJV]

Archaeologists strike gold in quest to find Queen of Sheba’s wealth

An initial clue lay in a 20 ft stone stele (or slab) carved with a sun and crescent moon, the “calling card of the land of Sheba”, Schofield said. “I crawled beneath the stone – wary of a 9 ft cobra I was warned lives here – and came face to face with an inscription in Sabaean, the language that the Queen of Sheba would have spoken.”    […]

Sheba was a powerful incense-trading kingdom that prospered through trade with Jerusalem and the Roman empire. The queen is immortalised in Qur’an and the Bible, which describes her visit to Solomon “with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices, and very much gold and precious stones … Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices.”

Although little is known about her, the queen’s image inspired medieval Christian mystical works in which she embodied divine wisdom, as well as Turkish and Persian paintings, Handel’s oratorio Solomon, and Hollywood films. Her story is still told across Africa and Arabia, and the Ethiopian tales are immortalised in the holy book the Kebra Nagast.

Sean Kingsley, archaeologist and author of God’s Gold, said: “The idea that the ruins of Sheba’s empire will once more bring life to the villages around Maikado is truly poetic and appropriate. Making the past relevant to the present is exactly what archaeologists should be doing. “

from: theguardian.com

 

Revelation 3:7

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write;
These things saith he that is holy, he that is true,
he that hath the key of David,
he that openeth, and no man shutteth;
and shutteth, and no man openeth;
Revelation 3:7 (KJV)

 

Revelation: three, seven—the Kingdom of Heaven

The key to unlocking both glory and shame.

Philadelphia knows He’s arriving in newness

inscribing on foreheads His city and name.

(Though it could be on tee shirts or baseball caps, true—

unless someone takes time to decipher the text . . .

is it Greek? Aramaic? Amharic? What next?)

Don’t be mad—it’s not me but old John who’s to blame.

Of names and on numbers of Savior and Beast

I have lately been pondering, trembling, wondering

mushroom-cloud raptures in mind’s eye a-thundering.

How will we get to that marriage-day feast?

Will my garment be ready or filthy with fall-out?

(The song says His blood will make clean if we call out

in faith for forgiveness, in humble repentance

believing that grace will abolish the sentence.)

You may wish my rhyme to be likewise abolished.

Bear with me. Forgive me, I grant it’s not polished.

I speak what I feel and I write when I’m able;

which brings us to heavenly thoughts gastronomic:

what dishes we’ll meet as we dine at that table—

strict Jewish? Angelic? Or pre-Abrahamic?

Shall they serve us from silver or common ceramic?

Being clay to the potter, an unfinished vessel

I leave all these questions for others to wrestle.

Yet there’s still one more realm I explore in conjecture:

the sounds at that gathering.  Classical?   Rock?

Unending revivalist Christian refrains?

Shall we headbang in heaven with glorified brains?

Psychedelic/Psychotic . . .  or  Handel and Bach?

(Lighten up. It’s the end of my bible-school lecture.

You’ve seen a few rooms of my castle-in-air,

and we ALL know it’s reggae they’re playing up there…)

New Jerusalem

Poetic – but Look Out for the Cobra

       Etiopia Yemen
The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: 
the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.
Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.
For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth;
the poor also, and him that hath no helper.
He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy.
He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence:
and precious shall their blood be in his sight.
And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba:
prayer also shall be made for him continually; and daily shall he be praised.
Psalm 72 [KJV]

Archaeologists strike gold in quest to find Queen of Sheba’s wealth

An initial clue lay in a 20 ft stone stele (or slab) carved with a sun and crescent moon, the “calling card of the land of Sheba”, Schofield said. “I crawled beneath the stone – wary of a 9 ft cobra I was warned lives here – and came face to face with an inscription in Sabaean, the language that the Queen of Sheba would have spoken.”    […]

Sheba was a powerful incense-trading kingdom that prospered through trade with Jerusalem and the Roman empire. The queen is immortalised in Qur’an and the Bible, which describes her visit to Solomon “with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices, and very much gold and precious stones … Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices.”

Although little is known about her, the queen’s image inspired medieval Christian mystical works in which she embodied divine wisdom, as well as Turkish and Persian paintings, Handel’s oratorio Solomon, and Hollywood films. Her story is still told across Africa and Arabia, and the Ethiopian tales are immortalised in the holy book the Kebra Nagast.

Sean Kingsley, archaeologist and author of God’s Gold, said: “The idea that the ruins of Sheba’s empire will once more bring life to the villages around Maikado is truly poetic and appropriate. Making the past relevant to the present is exactly what archaeologists should be doing. “

from: theguardian.com